In the last 100 years, Punjab has won and lost many a battle on the social, religious and political front by launching Morchas -peoples’ crusades for achieving a mission for protection and preservation of the language, civil and political rights of the people of Punjab.  The Shambu Morcha -so-called as it is in the Shambu village bordering Punjab and Haryana is gradually turning into a symbol of Punjab’s strong opposition to new legislation to bring in crony capitalists into agriculture to the detriment of the poor, landless and the marginal farmer.

THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUNG ACTIVISTS, MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN -WITH EVERYTHING LIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA, has added a new dimension to the struggle. The Shambu Morcha is growing from strength to strength. The embarrassment of the Kisan leaders at the hands of the BJP government at New Delhi, where a low-level government bureaucrat was asked to talk to the farmers’ representation, resulting in they boycotting the talks, has further strengthened the resolve of the participating organisations of all hues and shades.

Shambu has witnessed a lot in the last decades. The state of Haryana, acting under orders from the Indian Union has embarrassed and harassed innocent travellers from Punjab under one pretext or another. Lest you forget the humiliation to Sikhs, including high-ranking military personnel travelling to the Asian Games during the Asian Games, 1982.

The proliferation of new ideas -Amritsar as a trading centre, Amritsar as the gateway to the east as a dry port -as it was a century or more back, the opening of the Indo-Pak border for trade, war cries for stopping the flow of water from Punjab to neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi, reconsidering the Rabi and Kharif crop cycle has given impetus to the sovereign right of the people of Punjab and particularly the farmers to decide their crop and determine the price of their produce.

The search for alternative farming and the throwing up of alternative leadership at the Shambu Morcha is upsetting many an established political norm and is a complement to the tenacity of the participants and organisers that the Shambu Morcha is no longer a partisan struggle for farm rights but presents the portents of economic, social and political liberty of the people of Punjab.

The calls for a boycott of Reliance products, petrol pumps, including Jio Sim cards, the protests against Adani’s Silos, the passing of resolutions against the farm laws by the Gram Sabhas of the 12,000-plus villages of Punjab

The search for alternative farming and the throwing up of alternative leadership at the Shambu Morcha is upsetting many an established political norm and is a complement to the tenacity of the participants and organisers .

The Railway traffic to Punjab has been halted by the agitating farmers. The Punjab government seems to be at its wit’s end in handling the situation. One day, it wants a resolution in a specially convened session of the Punjab Assembly and then the next day it backs out.

The Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, after its divorce from the Shiromani Akali Dal, had started day-dreaming about ruling Punjab on its own, with its leadership flamboyantly declaring that it will contest all 117 seats in 2022. The BJP Punjab chief Harjit Singh Grewal belaboured a lot on satellite media to show that they are puritans and the Badal Dal is the guilty party as far as new farm laws are concerns.

The manner in which the Punjab BJP was shown the door by the people at a recent function, whatever happens, it is safe to say that the BJP dream of being in power in Punjab has been smashed to smithereens. The BJP has no partner and singly it cannot face the farmer, the farm labour and the trader. The rank and file of the party are in hiding.

The manner in which the Punjab BJP was shown the door by the people at a recent function, whatever happens, it is safe to say that the BJP dream of being in power in Punjab has been smashed to smithereens.

Will farmers from other states converge at Shambu to express solidarity and be part of the struggle or would they like to reap the benefits of federalism after the Anandpur Sahib resolution but at the same time see Punjab with a different eye?

There is growing resistance amongst farmers in Haryana and Maharashtra, still it appears that Punjab is leading the battle straight from the front on behalf of the farmers of India.

Will Shambu Morcha become the Shaheen Bagh for its resistance, dissent and opposition to the farm laws of India?