Earlier last month, a group of farmers from Tamil Nadu decided to resume their protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar after their demands for loan waivers were not met. On 23 July they said they would protest for another 100-200 days, until their demands were met.
Amid much distress, these agitating farmers were greeted with a pleasant surprise – volunteers from Delhi’s Bangla Sahib Gurudwara have been ensuring that these farmers do not go hungry, by providing them with langar every day.
As per reports, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) have been providing meals to the Tamil Nadu farmers, despite bearing no connection with their protest. Manjit Singh, President, DSGMC was quoted by NDTV as saying the committee was providing langar to the group twice a day.
Singh also claimed that the committee is willing to provide lodging to the farmers but they haven’t asked for it yet.
The volunteers at Bangla Sahib normally cook simple home-style food like chapatis, dal, vegetable and kheer all day long, and offer the same to all those in need. While they served the same food initially to the agitating farmers, they started serving rice as well, upon realising that the farmers preferred it to chapatis. Singh said, as quoted by The News Minute:
After all, this is Guru ka Langar and we don’t discriminate. Some consider it our allegiance to their protest but no, we are just serving those who seek Guru’s help.
Reports also stated that R Perumal, a leader of the Tamil Farmers Association, thanked the volunteers, calling them “god-sent”.
Earlier in May, when the farmers were protesting in the capital, they had resorted to extreme measures like shaving half their heads and even carrying the skulls of deceased farmers to draw the government’s attention to their plight.
(With inputs from The News Minute, NDTV)
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