‘We Feared BJP but AAP Betrayed Us’: Farmers Rue 'Ambush' at Punjab Border

Amid the shock of mass detentions and the sudden demolition of protest sites, farmers seemed to be in a disarray.

“The farmers had been called for a meeting to hold dialogue. But instead, they were arrested.”

(Photo: PTI)

It's been four days since Gurpinder Singh has heard from his 71-year-old father Jagjit Singh Dallewal.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Sidhupur) leader had been on an intermittent hunger strike for the past 115 days at the Khanauri border, where he was camped since February last year.

Similarly, it has been four days since Arshpreet Singh has heard from his father, Inderjeet Singh Ghaniya. The 68-year-old farmer leader had also been a fixture at Khanauri for over a year now.

On 19 March, both Dallewal and Ghaniya were part of a group of nearly 100 farmers who made their way from Khanauri to Chandigarh.

“The farmers had been called for a meeting to hold dialogue. But instead, they were arrested,” Gurpinder told The Quint, adding that the police had initially lodged him in a Public Works Department (PWD) guest house in Jalandhar cantonment before moving him back to Patiala. He is currently at a hospital in Patiala.

“We heard that he stopped drinking water on 20 March — and that his doctor was not allowed to attend to him. The police said he is getting treatment, but we have not heard from him yet.”

Gurpinder Singh

Ghaniya’s son Arshpreet, on the other hand, does not know which prison his father is in or for how long he has been detained. Ghaniya is among the 700 or so farmers reportedly detained by Punjab Police after a crackdown on farmer leaders protesting at the Haryana-Punjab border at Shambhu and Khanauri. 

Bana Brar, a member of the BKU (E-S) who was at the Khanauri protest when the police troops arrived on 19 March, said it was an "ambush". He is one of the few farmer leaders at Khanauri who managed to evade detention when “thousands of cops arrived at the protest site with JCBs” and began evicting the farmers.

“The police forcefully evicted hundreds of farmers who had been camped in makeshift trolleys blocking nearly 3 km of the highway. While some managed to run away into the nearby fields, most were forcefully detained and taken away in vans,” Brar who is from Sakkhanwali village, said. 

He and other members of the BKU (E-S) claim that after detaining the protesters, police went on to demolish the makeshift homes and destroy the farmers’ belongings.

Concrete barricades being removed after the eviction of agitating farmers from the Shambhu border.

(Photo: PTI)

Since many had been living at the protest site for over a year, their makeshift homes had been innovatively fitted with appliances.

“Most of the belongings like ACs, refrigerators, investors, and tractor batteries have been stolen — and the police has damaged whatever is left,” Brar, who also lost his property along with the likes of Ghaniya, told The Quint while sharing videos of the damage done. 

‘We Were Backstabbed’

On 18 March, the Agriculture Ministry of the Government of India sent a letter to the non-political Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) – BKU (E-S)’s parent body leading the Khanauri protest – and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) about a meeting between the Government of India and farmer leaders the following day at 11 am at Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Sector 26, Chandigarh.

Abhimanyu Singh Kohar, one of the detained farmer leaders of the Khanauri protest, had told The Quint a day ahead of the meet that the meeting was initially proposed to be held at 5 pm. He had also said that Dallewal had agreed to meet the government despite its failure in the farmers’ demands — and that this was the seventh meeting between the protesting farmers and authorities.

A 28-member delegation from the SKM (non-political) and KMM participated in the meeting to present the farmers' side, including senior leaders like KMM’s Sarwan Kumar Pandher, who had been leading the protests at Shambhu, Kaka Kotra, Kohar, and Manjit Singh Rai, among others. Dallewal himself arrived via ambulance.

The meeting went on for nearly four hours.

BKU (E-S) members told The Quint that during the meeting, a joint secretary was appointed to oversee future discussions around Minimum Support Price (MSP) guarantee, the primary demand of Dallewal and Pandher. The next round of talks was set to be held on 4 May.

As per reports, a committee to study the financial feasibility and implications of MSP has also been instituted by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. But the meeting remained inconclusive. 

Soon after the meeting, just as the convoys exited Chandigarh, the returning leaders were arrested by Punjab Police in Mohali.

According to BKU (E-S) leader Gurdeep Singh, the arrests appear to be "pre-planned". Singh said that the police had placed several barricades at intervals of one km each. It was clearly intended to stop any of the vehicles from getting away.

SKM (non-political) leader Palvinder Singh Mahal spoke to The Quint from inside the bus in which he and other leaders were carted away. 

“The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments have betrayed the farmers in the worst possible manner. First, the Centre called the leaders for peaceful dialogue, and then AAP arrested them. This is backstabbing."

Palvinder Singh Mahal

About 100 farmer leaders returning to Khanauri were detained.

Throughout the day and late at night, the police carried out a crackdown across protest sites, including Khanauri and Shambhu.

BKU (E-S) members claim that nearly 350 farmers, including women, who had been living at Khanauri were detained — and are currently dispersed across prisons. He also added that while the police have claimed that they did not use force, lathis were used and several farmers, including some elderly, were even injured. 

'Came With Bulldozers, Razed Our Homes'

Similar stories emerged from the Shambhu border. Mander Singh from Khunde Halal village in Punjab, who had been protesting at Shambhu for over a year, was an eyewitness to the police offensive.

“They came with bulldozers and razed our homes. Some farmers were allowed to go back but most courted arrest,” Singh said.

“I am facing losses of Rs 10,000 at least. Many others are as well. Will the government compensate?"

Mander Singh

Dismantled structures after the eviction of agitating farmers from the Shambhu border.

(Photo: PTI)

Over 100 farmers from Shambhu were detained. Mander also felt that the AAP government had carefully chosen the time to attack the protest sites. While the total number of detainees remains unclear, initial reports said that over 700 farmers had been detained. 

“The strength at Shambhu had been a little low at the time as this is the season for harvesting wheat, and many of the farmers, especially the younger lot, were at home in farms. The police shuffled the elderly farmers around. Some were sent home while others detained,” Mander added. 

Dalbar Singh, Pradhan of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee at Pahu Wind, told The Quint that the police were forceful while detaining farmers at Shambhu — and that they deliberately caused damage to farmers’ belongings.

“Around 15 tractor trolleys are missing. Tents, mattresses and other resources were removed from the spot. Villagers from nearby areas tell us police has been destroying the property themselves and taking away what they can.”

Dalbar Singh

The farmer from Tarn Taran Sahib went to Khanauri as part of a jatthabandi of farmers on 10 March — and was supposed to stay till 30 March.

Refuting allegations of violence, Mandeep Singh Sidhu, DIG Patiala Range Punjab Police, said that proper care was being taken of detainees after removal of protestors from border areas. Addressing allegations of stolen property, the DIG told reporters,

“Tractors and trolleys are being shifted a few kilometres away from the borders. If someone wants to collect them, they can do so by showing their identity proofs.” 

Senior Superintendent of Police, Nanak Singh, was quoted by news agency ANI as saying that no force was used by the police as many protesters “wanted to go home” and went inside the police vans willingly.

Bypoll Politics?

The onslaught on the farmers has led to questions over the AAP’s politics with Opposition parties like the Congress accusing it of being the BJP’s ‘B-Team’.

Dalbar and other senior farm leaders feel that AAP and Bhagwant Mann government’s u-turn on the farmer protests was a result of the party’s losses in Delhi. He and Gurdeep Singh agree that the arrests were part of a well-coordinated plan to get party convenor Arvind Kejriwal elected to Rajya Sabha via Punjab.

The AAP has nominated its Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjeev Arora, to contest the Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll, expected to be held in the coming weeks. The seat has been vacant since the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Singh Gogi under mysterious circumstances.

“The party is trying to show itself to be strict with farmers to woo the middle class and the vyapari varg (traders’ demographic) voters of Ludhiana, which is an urban seat,” he alleged. 

Ahead of the crackdown, Kejriwal along with Punjab Chief Minister Mann visited Ludhiana on 17 March and held meetings with the traders’ community at Hotel Radisson in Ludhiana. Nearly 400 traders and businessmen attended the meet.

As per sources close to the AAP government in Punjab, the traders had warned the leader of political fallout if the government failed to deal with the farmers’ issue, which has led to economic stress in the state. In a social media post ahead of the meeting, the AAP’s Sanjeev Arora had promised to solve the problems traders were facing.

A Divided Movement

Amid the shock of the mass arrests and sudden demolition of the protest sites, the remaining protesters seemed to be in a disarray.

The farmers have continued to protest in their own villages.

In Sakkhanwali, BKU(E-S)’s ikai mahasacheev (office-bearer) Tarlok Singh led protests to burn effigies of Bhagwant Mann. “This government is anti-farmer, just like the BJP. They are all pro-corporate,” Tarlok said. Both BKU(E-S) and KMM members have been sporadically protesting and sitting on hunger strikes. 

Detained farmer leaders have also been protesting.

BKU(E-S)’s Gurdeep Singh said that some of the farmers detained from Khanauri are in Patiala jail while some farmers have been kept in Ropar. Thirteen of the protesters lodged in Ropar were initially taken to a thana In Kurali. Gurmeet claims that the detained farmers had started their hunger strike against the arrests in Kurali itself and have continued fasting in Ropar.

A large-scale farmers’ movement in retaliation to the arrests, however, does not appear to be likely.

Farmers burning effigy of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in wake of mass detention of protests. 

(Photo: Gurdeep Singh)

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmer and workers’ groups that had been at the forefront of the farmers’ protest in 2020, has maintained its distance from both Pandher and Dallewal, leaders of the twin protests at Shambhu and Khanauri.

SKM senior leader Harjit Ravi, while expressing solidarity for the arrested leaders, evaded the question of how SKM was reacting to the arrests and the AAP’s action against farmers. He said that the SKM has given a call to march to Punjab Vidhan Sabha on 26 March — and has also planned protests outside its district headquarters on 28 March to express their objection to the treatment of senior farmer leaders. But that a bigger step would be decided collectively after meeting with representatives of all groups. 

Ravi said that while all farmer leaders and groups want the same things, they prioritise different demands are different times.

“It’s all in the difference in every group’s charter,” he told The Quint.

The SKM is demanding implementation of the state's agricultural policy, purchase of six crops at MSP by the state government, a legal framework for debt relief after coordinating with the Centre, ownership rights of land tillers, and payment of sugarcane arrears, Ravi clarified. “Meanwhile, the BKU(E-S) and KMM leaders feel MSP guarantee is the first priority,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the AAP said that the farmers were removed to increase employment in Punjab and that the protest had been causing economic losses. The Mann government also said that if the farmers had a problem with the Centre, they should protest in Delhi, not in Punjab. Condemning such statements, the SKM leader said that Punjab government’s stance was “anti-farmer” — and that accusing farmers of causing problems because of blockade were baseless.

He reminded that it was the government that stopped the farmers from going to Delhi when leaders gave the 'Delhi Chalo' call.

“Neither the BJP in Centre and Haryana nor the AAP in Delhi at the time wanted the farmers to enter the capital. Now that it has lost Delhi, the AAP is trying to tighten control in state governance”. 

Other farmers’ organisations also remain wary of the AAP.

On 21 March, the Punjab government called for another meeting of farmer leaders. This time, farmers were more wary. SKM chose not to attend.

Tarsem Singh of Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Union told The Quint that even groups like BKU (Ugrahan) – that were not part of the over a year-long farmers' protests at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Haryana and Punjab – have become suspicious of the government and chose not to respond to the government’s call.

“AAP has shown its true colours,” Tarsem said. 

The detained farmers have since refused to seek bail from Punjab Police or the government, stating that they wanted to see how long the government could hold them like this.

Back at the protest sites, the mood remains grim. The farm leaders commemorated the ‘Shaheed Jayanti’ (death anniversary) of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev on 23 March.

Bana Brar said that in a way, the leaders' arrest has already commemorated the freedom fighters’ legacy.

“Unke sath bhi sarkar ne dhokha kiya tha, hamare sath bhi sarkar ne dhoka kiya hai. Fark sirf inna hai ki who tanashahon ki sarkar thi, aur ye aam admi ki”.