NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: Doctors, university students and teachers, lawyers, social activists, political workers, singers — people from all walks of life are converging on Singhu, Tikri, Chilla and Ghazipur borders of the national capital to show solidarity with the farmers agitating against the agri laws.
With the numbers swelling at the protest sites, more tents, chairs and carpets are being brought out. Villagers living around are supplying vegetables and milk to the protesters while gurudwara committees and Sikh volunteers from Haryana, Punjab and Delhi distributing blankets and mattress for the farmers braving it out in the cold. Nearby fuel stations are offering free petrol/diesel.
Dozens of doctors are visiting daily, checking up on elderly farmers and giving free services and medicines. A retired civil surgeon with the Punjab government, Dr DS Multani, said, “We’ll stay with farmers till their protest continues.” Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti tweeted: “Organised health camp for our farmers at Singhu Border and will hold medical camps at other protest sites.
Doctors from AIIMS, Safdarjung, Hindu Rao & other hospitals of Delhi came in solidarity with FarmersProtest.’’ NGOs such as United Sikhs are providing free ambulance services. At Tikri Border, the Red Cross Society has lent five ambulances with six workers.
Gurinder, a pharmacist from Punjab who landed at Singhu Border said, “This facility has been started by me and four friends…with funds provided by our friends living in America.” Hundreds of students from Delhi University, JNU, Panjab University and Kurukshetra University gather at the protest sites every day.
A group of students from Panjab University has set up a medical camp while some students from Ludhiana Missionary College students distributed blankets. Nandita Narain, former president of DU Teachers Association and professor at St. Stephen’s College, said, “The Modi government is trying bring back the East India Company i.e, corporate multinational companies to destroy the lives of farmers.” Gurman Singh, a farmer protest, said: “We were surprised when we found mechanics in our midst. They offered to repair our tractor-trolleys.”
Kangana gets notice for fake tweet on ‘dadi’
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut has been sent a legal notice over her comment on social media for allegedly misidentifying an old woman at the farmers’ protest in the national capital as Bilkis Bano, famously known as the ‘Shaheen Bagh dadi’.
Punjab-based advocate Harkam Singh, in the legal notice dated November 30, suggested Ranaut should have authenticated information before posting it on social media and demanded an apology over her tweets, in which she allegedly misidentified the woman. In a tweet, which she later deleted, Ranaut had claimed that the woman was available for just Rs 100 to make an appearance in protests.