CHANDIGARH: After a year-long struggle at the Delhi borders, the farmers have finally come out victorious as the Prime Minister has ordered the repeal of the three contentious farm laws.
However, the victory came with a heavy price -- 669 lives were lost due to heatwave, hailstorms, harsh winters, accidents, falling from tractor trolleys, run over by trucks, heart attacks, Covid-19 and dengue outbreak during the farmers' agitation.
The families of the 'martyred' farmers feel that an earlier decision could have saved precious lives. The farmers' fear of losing their land that came with the three farm laws proved a turning point in making the protest a true people's movement in Punjab.
Economic profiling of the deceased farmers was done in a study by economists associated with Punjabi University recently. It found that majority of those who died were small and marginal farmers.
The first casualty was reported on November 24 last year when a large group of farmers was covering tractor-trolleys with waterproof sheets at Mehal Kalan in Barnala. Kahan Singh, an activist of the BKU (Dakaunda) from Dhaner village, was hit by a car on the roadside where trollies were parked for the preparations for the Delhi march and died on the spot. "Kahan was the first martyr of the Delhi agitation,” recalls Manjit Dhaner of BKU (Dakunda).
Rajinder Singh Deep Singhwala of Kirti Kisan Union says, "Besides our fellow farmers dying in road tragedies, nature was not kind to us. It is a lesson for the coming generations which will know that only struggle defeated the undefeatable and we achieved the unimaginable."
Farmer Bhupinder Singh, who has recently lost his brother Gurbhej Singh of Saidolehal village in Amritsar, says, "We welcome the decision of PM Modi for taking a good decision but it should have been done earlier so that many lives could have been saved. All the innocent farmers who were killed during the agitation have beome martyrs for the farmers’ community as they died protesting against the three draconian black farm laws."
55-year-old Ninder Kaur of Sawaike in Ferozepur said that his son Lovejeet Singh (23) attained martyrdom in January this year at Singhu Border during the protest. "He was supporting the agitation from day one and used to tell me that the farmers' will definitely win someday. His soul must be happy after this news."
Gurmit Kaur (58), the wife of 60-year-old farmer Jarnail Singh (60) of Pipli Chak in Guruharsahai sub-division of Ferozepur, said her husband had died due to cardiac arrest during the dharna at Singhu border in June this year. "His sacrifice has finally paid off as the Centre repealed the farm laws. I am so happy that the farmers, who were fighting for their rights, have finally won on this sacred day (Guru Nanak Jayanti).
"We welcome the decision. The Parliament should now bring a bill to formality repeal the three farm laws at the earliest possible. The government should also have made this announcement earlier in order to save the lives of more than 700 farmers. It is the turn of the Punjab government to fulfill its promise of giving jobs to a family member of each farmer martyred during the agitation. What happened in the past was an irrecoverable loss," Jagdish Singh, who lost his brother Davinder Singh from Maluwal village in Amritsar, said.