Punjab farmers’ year-long border protest gains new momentum

Farmers agitating on the border of Punjab and Haryana at Khanauri and Shambhu for a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for all crops have once again become a talking point. That the protest is geographically confined to a particular region does not lessen its impact, especially with the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s fast-unto-death making headlines across the country.

The septuagenarian, who is a cancer patient, has been fasting since November 26 at Khanauri. His deteriorating health has prompted the Supreme Court to express concern and urge medical aid for him, while respecting his right to this form of protest. Suicides by agitating farmers in recent days have also turned public attention to the protest.

The protest began on February 13, 2024, with a sit-in at the borders and will soon complete one year. Unlike the farmers’ agitation of 2020-21, which was led by more than 500 farmer and peasant fronts across the country, the current agitation is being led by two factions of farmer unions from Punjab: the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) led by Sarwan Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur). The main demand, that of a legally guaranteed MSP, was part of the charter of demands of the previous agitation too.

Dallewal’s organisation was part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the broader front (which included 32 unions from Punjab alone) which led that movement. Pandher’s organisation was never formally part of the SKM but participated in the protests. Dallewal is one of the farmer leaders who have since moved away from the SKM.

His decision to leave it came in July 2022, when he floated the SKM (Non-Political). He was upset with the parent front’s decision to take back leaders who had left it to contest (and lose) the Punjab Assembly election. (The SKM itself had disapproved of their taking part in elections.) A more important reason for Dallewal’s parting of ways with the SKM was that he had wanted to continue with protests to press for a legally guaranteed MSP.

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Speaking to Frontline, a farmer leader explained why a halt in the protests was necessary. “At that point, another year of protests was just not possible. There was considerable exhaustion; 700 farmers had died in 13 months. There was, undoubtedly, a sense of achievement as the farm laws were withdrawn.

And there was consensus that the SKM would carry out protest actions throughout the country in phases and wait for the government to act on the demands. The Central government formed a committee, but its terms of reference were not acceptable to us. Instead of explicitly saying that a legal guarantee would be given, the terms of reference were vague and obfuscatory. Therefore, when the government asked us to send representatives, the SKM refused to give names,” the leader said.

The KMM and SKM (Non-Political) had unilaterally given the “Dilli Chalo“ (March to Delhi) last year, along with several smaller groups. The Haryana government launched a brutal crackdown when some 100-odd farmers tried to march to Delhi. There was violence on three separate occasions, on February 13, 14, and 21 in 2024. One young farmer, Shubhkaran Singh, was killed. Unfazed, the farmers decided to camp on the Shambhu border near Ambala in Haryana.

The standoff has continued for close to a year, with the unrelenting BJP government in Haryana refusing to allow the farmers to go ahead, using barricades and tear gas to stop their progress. Some farmer leaders told Frontline that this could not have been possible without a green signal from the Central government. A committee headed by a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court is investigating the incidents of violence.

With the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare putting out a draft Agricultural Marketing Policy on its website on November 25, 2024, the day Dallewal announced he was going to start a fast from the next day, signs of a broader unity among farmer unions have been emerging again. The Punjab government has, incidentally, officially rejected the draft policy, which farmer leaders see as a ploy to finish off the Agricultural Produce Market Committees, or mandis.

At Moga in Punjab on January 9, the SKM passed a resolution in favour of the broadest possible unity given the new challenges before the farming community. According to Inderjit Singh, vice president of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), this was the largest mobilisation in Punjab in recent years. Another SKM “mahapanchayat” was held on January 4 at Tohana in Haryana’s Fatehabad district. At the time of going to press, a delegation of the SKM was supposed to meet the protesting farmers at Khanauri and Shambhu on January 10 to invite the KMM and SKM (Non-Political) to a meeting on January 16 in Patiala. Other protest plans by the SKM include burning of copies of the draft Agricultural Marketing Policy at tehsil headquarters on January 13 and a tractor rally on January 26.

One year at Khanauri and Shambhu

In July 2024, a PIL petition was filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions to the States of Punjab and Haryana and the Union government to remove restrictions on the farmers’ protest and ensure smooth passage for the public. On July 10, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said the barricades near Ambala (on the Punjab-Haryana border) should be removed within a week in order to “relieve the general public of inconvenience”. It also directed both State governments to maintain law and order in case the protesters “exceeded the limit set by the State”. Instead of complying with the order, the Haryana government appealed against it in the Supreme Court.

When the matter came up for a hearing in the Supreme Court on July 20, the apex court suggested that an independent committee of eminent persons be formed that could “reach out to the agitating farmers and who could also impress upon the States and the Union of India or other stakeholders to find out some viable solution to the issues raised by the agitating farmers to the extent that such issues were found to be just, fair, feasible and most importantly, in the interest of one and all”.

A five-member committee was constituted in September 2024 in consultation with both the States to resolve the issue. Headed by a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, it had on board the agriculture experts Devinder Sharma and Sukhpal Singh, who is chairperson of the Punjab State Farmers’ and Farm Workers’ Commission; the economist Ranjit Singh Ghuman; and B.S. Sandhu, a former Director General of Police Haryana. The committee’s interim status report said farmers in general, including those in Punjab and Haryana, were in distress and heavily in debt and that a legally guaranteed MSP should be given because they were not getting a fair price for their crops.

One of the committee members told Frontline that the report had dealt with all issues concerning farmers, farm workers, marginalised sections and the “below poverty line” section of those subsisting on agriculture. He also said that there was no law under which the Haryana government could stop farmers from marching to Delhi. It was learnt that while the SKM (Non-Political) deposed before the committee, the KMM did not. Interestingly, the SKM, too, opted to stay away from deposing before the committee.

While constituting the committee, the Supreme Court asked it to persuade the farmers to remove their blockade from the Shambhu border. It also “cautioned” the agitating farmers to keep “a safe distance from political parties, political issues, and not to insist on such demands which are not feasible to be accepted outrightly”. The court hoped that once the committee was constituted, the farmers would respond to its request and vacate the roads and borders occupied by them.

This, said Inderjit Singh of the AIKS, was beyond the court’s mandate. “It was additionally curious that court neither stayed the High Court’s order nor upheld it. Interestingly, it did not do anything after the high-level committee submitted its interim report,” he said.

There has been little headway in the months following the Supreme Court’s intervention. Dallewal’s health has been deteriorating with every passing day. The court has directed the Punjab government to ensure that Dallewal does not come to any harm. The Punjab government has complied, providing medical support on stand-by. When the committee members met him on January 7, he reportedly expressed disappointment with the Central government. “We told him that his health was important, his leadership was important, and that he should take medical aid,” a committee member told Frontline.

Protesters resort to desperate measures

Meanwhile, other farmers have been taking desperate measures. On January 9, Resham Singh, a farmer from Pahu Pind village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district who had been with the protesters at Shambhu for 10 days, died by suicide. He had allegedly consumed sulphas tablets. A suicide note reportedly found in his pocket apparently blamed the Central government for failing to address the farmers’ concerns.

Resham Singh’s is the third suicide in the current phase of agitation. In December, Ranjodh Singh, a farmer from Punjab’s Khanna district, died by suicide at Shambhu. In September, Gurmeet Singh, a farmer from Mansa district, died by suicide in Khanauri.

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The demand for a statutory guarantee for MSP was one of the demands in the 2020-21 protests, too, but the withdrawal of three contentious farm laws was the priority. That movement succeeded in getting the laws repealed. But demands pertaining to debt waivers, withdrawal of criminal cases filed against farmers during the 2020-21 agitation, and a legally guaranteed MSP based on the formula (C 2 + 50 per cent) recommended by the National Commission for Farmers (also known as the Swaminathan Commission) were not fulfilled.

Pandher, who spoke to the media after Resham Singh’s death, said the farmers would continue to agitate until their demands were met. However, unlike the previous protest of 2020-21 where farmers from Haryana were actively involved, and farmers could reach the borders of Delhi, this time round, the reach of the agitation, in physical terms, has been somewhat limited.

Amid all this, the Central government maintains its wait-and-watch policy, and it is anybody’s guess how long this protest is likely to continue.