JALANDHAR: The farm stir might have helped unite people from different identities – regional to religious to caste – but bitterness between a section of Punjabi Leftists and Sikhs has been brewing, more so after the events of Republic Day. Though initially it was dismissed as confined only to social media, later it was realised that it had the potential to cause damage to the movement.
This led to a few prominent Punjabi commentators addressing the issue and urging people to reduce the friction, while emphasising nuanced understanding of the things. Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leadership also appeared to be concerned about it.
The rift between Sikhs and Leftists had widened in 1980s after which Left parties were pushed to electoral insignificance in the state. Some of the Leftists, rather ultra-Leftists, joined Sikh stream after Operation Blue Star and they became biggest critics of Left politics and the Left’s understanding of Sikh and Punjab issues. Some bitterness has lived between two sides since.
It was the peasantry movement which brought them closer once again as quite a few farm unions have Left or ultra-Left orientation and played significant role in providing leadership. Sikhs became biggest strength of the movement, providing the crucial resources, numbers, institutional support, apart from the spirit with motivation from Sikh history. Though some differences were visible earlier too, but the sheer scale of the movement, the challenge it posed and faced from the government – overshadowed these differences. It prompted both sides to be accommodating to each other.
However, the events of January 26 and the subsequent reactions and handling by the farm union leaders, especially a couple of those coming from Left background, differences between perceptions in viewing the events, led to spiralling up of bitterness. Acrimonious exchanges have been happening since then. The narrative set by a few farm union leaders and their supporters on social media appeared to be holding the sway initially for a couple of days, but several Sikh netizens countered this narrative and questioned the role of leadership.
Postmortem of the January 26 and later events, role played by different persons and positions taken by different quarters from Left and Sikh fold, is continuing. SKM leadership appears to be striking a balance for now.
While author Jaspal Singh Sidhu has already written about this divide in detail and has advocated restraint from both sides, Sikh author Gurbachan Singh, himself earlier a Leftist, has said that the fight between both sides would only benefit the Union government and some “half-literate” fellows who did not understand the essence of Sikh philosophy and Marxism were widening the rift. Professor of Economics at Oxford Brookes Business School, UK, Pritam Singh has gone on record saying that farm leadership should be respected by all and they deserved credit for building the movement, but the leaders should also admit the flaws in their post January 26 articulation and handling of the situation. He also said that none, including Deep Sidhu, should be called traitor by the union leaders and dissent within those part of the movement should be respected.