Tikri, Singhu are worlds apart

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 13

Tikri and Singhu, two protest sites, seem to exist in different spaces. If one is flooded with lavish langars and unheard-of dishes, the other is struggling to feed people even basic items.

The two sites seem to be representing two Punjabs — the landless and the landlord; those coming from fertile land and those from the infertile hinterland. With the entire leadership of farmers camping amid the attention of national media and most of the langars from Delhi and Punjab being offered there, Singhu seems to have emerged as the centre of the struggle.

On the other hand, Tikri, where most of the farmers are from the poorest of the poor districts of Malwa, is managing on its own. “Singhu has better connectivity to Delhi and Chandigarh. So, most of the people offering langars and other help prefer that site over Tikri,” says Harinder Kaur Bindu, vice-president of BKU (Ugrahan).

She says that most of the farmers at Tikri are poor who come from the Malwa region where land holdings are small. Many are even landless. These are the people among whom the maximum suicides have taken place.

“We have given village units responsibility to manage their own langar. From each village, if one team returns, the other starts off with ration,” she says.

If Singhu looks like a picnic spot with langars of desi ghee pinnis to pizzas, foot massagers to roti-making machines, the atmosphere at Tikri seems to be more vibrant with midnight documentary film screenings to revolutionary theatre, from raising the issues of landless to food for all.

Rajinder Singh Deep Singhwala, vice-president of Kirti Kisan Union, says Singhu has become the centre of struggle but other centres are equally important.

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