JALANDHAR: The farmers’ protest on the Delhi outskirts is the third major mass mobilisation of people of Punjab in the last five years. The first was ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ at Chabba, Amritsar, in November 2015, and the second was Bargari morcha, where mammoth gatherings took place in October 2018. Now, the third also took place around the same time of the year in 2020. All three mass mobilisations took place around the same season and remained peaceful. While earlier two were related to Sikhs alone, these did not have any conflict with any other community. The second one received support even from members of the other communities.
The Sarbat Khalsa was called after sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib on October 12, 2015 and police firing at Behbal Kalan on October 14, in which two Sikh protesters were killed. Protests had erupted across Punjab and the state had almost come to a grinding halt as most highways and other roads were blocked. However, no incidence of violence was reported even as protests continued for close to a week.
The turnout at Sarbat Khalsa touched six digits. Though parallel jathedars of three Sikh Takhts were appointed in the Sarbat Khalsa, it could not deliver a long-term programme despite having huge response. Later, the Parkash Singh Badal-led government had slapped a sedition case on the organisers. Due to these incidents, SAD (Badal) was relegated to the third position in the 2017 assembly elections and it has still not been able to recover its lost ground.
The Bargari morcha started in June 2018 to seek the arrest of the accused in cases of Bargari sacrilege and Behbal Kalan firing. During this morcha, led by parallel Akal Takht jathedar Dhian Singh Mand, mammoth gatherings were held in Bargari on October 7 and 14, 2018. SAD (B) president Sukhbir Badal had even described the morcha leaders as ISI agents. Then CM Badal also raised the bogey of threat to Hindu-Sikh unity. However, the 192-day morcha not only remained completely peaceful but also drew support from other communities like dalits, Hindus and Muslims. Political leaders cutting across party and community lines also supported the demands of the morcha, belying apprehensions about threat to Hindu-Sikh amity. Despite being branded as radicals, morcha leaders did not exhort supporters to make sacrifices. They engaged with the government and made significant achievements in their stated objectives even as some part was yet to be fully accomplished.
The farmers’ agitation, which started from June 5, when farm ordinances were promulgated, was initially confined to a few places and grew in magnitude only in September, when Parliament passed the farm bills. The agitation has remained peaceful, barring an incident of the rear glass shield of state BJP president Ashwani Sharma’s vehicle being smashed on Jalandhar-Pathankot National Highway.
There was another mass mobilisation from the state when as protesters moved towards the national capital and had to cross multiple barricades. This movement has also remained peaceful.
Attempts at communal divide fail
People of Punjab have also been deflating attempts to create a communal divide to weaken the farmers’ agitation. Even though the rallying cry at the protest is ‘Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal’, since most of the protesting farmers are Sikhs, scores of Punjabi Hindus have been extending open support to them and debunking attempts on social media to create communal divide around the agitation. Dalit groups and activists are also extending support to the farmers’ agitation.