UP: Farmers Return Home After a Year of Protest at Ghazipur, Receive Heroic Welcome

Lucknow: Flower garlands and petal showers welcomed farmers as they returned home after over a year from the protest sites at the Ghazipur border of the national capital. It was a hero’s welcome, as it was their unity, grit and determination that ensured the repeal of the thee three contentious Central farm laws and also won them ‘guaranteed’ minimum support price (MSP).

Villagers, shopkeepers, residents came out to congratulate farmers and also farm labourers as a huge convoy, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait returned via Modinagar, Meerut, Daurala toll plaza, Mansurpur and Sisauli village in Muzaffarnagar. Residents were seen dancing with the farmers as the convoy passed through the city and villages. 

Sweets were distributed at every intersection on the Meerut-Muzaffarnagar highway and a langar (community lunch) was organised every 25 km from the Ghazipur border to Muzaffarnagar in Western UP.  

A havan was also performed in the morning at the UP Gate, under the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, for the well-being of farmers, even as all temporary settlements that had come up on the site over the past year were uninstalled and loaded onto tractor-trollies.  

The 'kisan bhawan' in Sisauli, the hometown of Tikait and Soram, the headquarter of several khaps (union of village groups), looked no less than a wedding venue. Tikait, a prominent face of the farmers' fight for repeal of the three laws that had triggered the protests on Delhi's borders last year, thanked the people and gave credit to sarv-khap for their immense support to mobilise people from Western Uttar Pradesh against three controversial farm laws. 

Tikait said the government got an idea of the power of the khaps and warned that there could be another ‘battle’ with the government any time. “So be ready”, he said. 

The BKU leader also asserted that the movement had been “suspended” and "not withdrawn." 

"Talks are underway with the Centre after withdrawal of the three farm laws. Our movement is suspended, not withdrawn," he added. 

Naresh Chaudhary, a farmer from Meerut, who was nostalgic after his return home after a year, said: “The farmers’ movement has taught us unity and how to make the government kneel down if they behave like dictators. The agitation also taught us that there is no substitute for patience, courage and unity. Only with mutual brotherhood and unity, can the country move forward,” he told NewsClick.

Gurvinder Singh, in his late 80s, hails from Lakhimpur Kheri district. He spent nine months at the Ghazipur border and was emotional on his return home. He says though farmers won the battle against the three farm laws, it was painful to lose so many farmers at the border.

“We have not forgotten the pain, the trauma and police brutalities that we suffered in the last one year on the border. I spent more than eight months away from my family. My children are very excited, as we finally got to meet each other after a year... I am very happy,” he told NewsClick. However, he added that the Lakhimpur violence would haunt him until justice was delivered to the families of the deceased.

All the farmers who returned to their homes said that the Ghazipur protest site was like their “second home” and they were sad to leave the “historic” place.

“Ghazipur border had become our home for the past one year. This farmers movement united all of us as we all fought together against the black farm laws irrespective of caste, creed and religion, under one banner. This is a historic moment and the victorious result of the movement is even bigger,” said Ramdev Yadav, a farmer from Etawah. 

Meanwhile, farmers said that Lakhimpur Kheri could witness a “massive movement”, similar to the border if Union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ was not removed from his post. The BKU leaders said they have given one week to the government to remove Mishra and take action against him, otherwise Kheri will become a “second border” for the farmers’ movement. 

Harpal Singh, a farmer from Kheri said the violent incident of Lakhimpur cannot be forgotten because through that incident there was a conspiracy to not only demolish the movement, but even destroy families of farmers. He said the SIT report has termed it as a “planned conspiracy” and has changed the Sections under which the accused will be charged, which has made the case “crystal clear.”