Farmers protesting at the Singhu border marked the Lohri celebrations on Wednesday evening by lighting bonfires, staging plays and raising slogans against the three agriculture sector laws brought in by the Centre.
Farmers from neighbouring States, who have been camping at the border for nearly 50 days now, said their agitation was more important than celebrating the harvest festival at their homes.
Reiterating that they were prepared for the long haul, the agitating farmers said they would not retreat unless their demand that the three laws be repealed is met by the government.
Rajender Singh from Punjab’s Tarn Taran district said, “Soon it will be two months of our agitation. When there has been no progress on the laws being repealed, how can we celebrate anything? No matter what the occasion is, we will stay put till the black laws are repealed. That is the only thing which will make us move from here.”
Supplies from home
While many of the farmers spent Lohri away from their families, relatives of a few others visited them at the border with supplies.
Darshan Singh, a farmer from Punjab’s Rupnagar district, said, “I have been here at the protest since the first day with 15 others from our village. Last night my son and a few others reached the border with a truck full of puffed rice and jaggery that we used to celebrate in whatever small manner we could. We also distributed it among others who are here.”
Pointing towards the bonfires, Sukhwinder Singh, a farmer from Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district, said: “This year, that is all that we have. Our Lohri is here at the border itself. Some of my family members arrived two days ago to join the protest. We at least got to spend the day together even though it is far from the usual celebrations.”
