En­dors­ing the strug­gle of the peo­ple of Pun­jab on the farm­ers’ rights ag­i­ta­tion, Kesri Lehar United King­dom and Scot­land has writ­ten an Open Let­ter to Pun­jab Chief Min­is­ter Cap­tain Amarinder Singh spelling out in graphic de­tail the tra­vails of the Pun­jab farmer and the de­gen­er­at­ing sta­tus of the In­dian state of Pun­jab. The think tank team of Jagdeesh Singh and his as­so­ci­ates for­mu­lates cor­rec­tive ac­tions in­clud­ing pass­ing a res­o­lu­tion of the Pun­jab As­sem­bly re­ject­ing new In­dian farm laws and ori­ent­ing the Pun­jab econ­omy and fi­nance in a truly in­de­pen­dent man­ner pro­tect­ing and for­ward­ing in­ter­ests of the Pan­jaabis.

DEAR CHIEF MIN­IS­TER AMARINDER SINGH: WE WRITE TO YOU FOR A POS­I­TIVE COURSE COR­REC­TION FOR PAN­JAAB; TO SHAKE YOUR CON­SCIENCE about the con­tin­u­ing de­cline and degra­da­tion of our cher­ished coun­try of East Pan­jaab (ar­ti­fi­cially and un­justly di­vided as it is be­tween East and West).

The cur­rent farm­ers’ up­roar and up­surge is an ex­pres­sion of the wide­spread and snow-balling grass-root an­guish felt across East Pan­jaab at the bla­tantly hos­tile and im­pos­ing poli­cies and laws of the bul­ly­ing and con­trol­ling mega-state of In­dia. Triply di­vided, ter­ri­to­ri­ally frac­tured and dec­i­mated, East Pan­jaab is sim­ply treated as a colony to all in­tents and pur­poses, for In­dia to use, ex­ploit, utilise and abuse at will.

Pan­jaab has gained noth­ing what­so­ever from this forced and abu­sive re­la­tion­ship over 73-years (1947-2020).

In­deed, from the po­si­tion of be­ing once a num­ber one eco­nomic re­gion (‘bread-bas­ket of In­dia’) in the whole of the In­dian state, Pan­jaab now stands at a stag­ger­ing num­ber 14 (of the en­tire states of In­dia), in Gross Do­mes­tic Prod­uct per­for­mance. It is be­low even the In­dian state of Bi­har.

The con­tin­u­ous, sys­tem­atic ne­glect and dam­age be­ing done to Pan­jaab, is demon­stra­bly ev­i­dent at all lev­els. The eco­nomic down­fall has reached such ap­palling lev­els, that, vast num­bers of the in­dige­nous Pan­jaabi pop­u­la­tion have been flee­ing Pan­jaab and the en­tirety of In­dia for the hope of more de­cent, eq­ui­table life in for­eign coun­tries. This is an open fact. They are eco­nomic refugees, feel­ing from a coun­try which in its glo­ri­ous past was a re­gional su­per­power – eco­nom­i­cally, mil­i­tary and more. To­day re­duced to dev­as­ta­tion, mass un­em­ploy­ment, poverty and eco­nomic strug­gle.

Ul­ti­mately, our farm­ing, our econ­omy, our land, our hu­man rights and de­vel­op­ment will on only be se­cure and be able to flour­ish when we are di­rectly in charge of our af­fairs; rather than the en­gulf­ing bully -the state of In­dia.

The cur­rent one-size-fits-all, In­dia wide farm-re­lated laws en­acted by the In­dian gov­ern­ment; detri­men­tally af­fect Pan­jaab more than any other re­gion of In­dia. The Pan­jaabi in­dige­nous econ­omy is agri­cul­ture-based. The nat­ural in­fra­struc­ture of Pan­jaab, mak­ing it the one-time bread­bas­ket of In­dia and still pro­vid­ing 50% of In­di­a’s crop and grain sup­ply, by a mere 2% pop­u­la­tion of In­dia; makes it an abun­dant and self-suf­fi­cient food pro­ducer.

It’s nat­ural, an in­dige­nous econ­omy with its once richly clean, healthy five rivers (now eroded and con­t­a­m­i­nated); make farm­ing and agri­cul­ture the nat­ural form of liv­ing of the Pan­jaabi peo­ple from as far back as we can see in his­tory. In­deed, many of our Great Gu­rus, were farm­ers, in com­mon with the Pan­jaabi peo­ple. Small-scale, vil­lage farm­ing is rooted and in­te­gral to Pan­jaabi civil­i­sa­tion.

The In­dian rul­ing elite, which was handed power un­de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally and in a ‘cut and run’ rush in 1947, has been un­able for 73-years to feed the vast pop­u­la­tion over which it gov­erns. It has ex­ploited Pan­jaab’s ca­pac­ity to pro­duce and de­liver much-needed food, at such an abun­dant level.

The cur­rent at­tempt to im­pose an In­dia-wide le­gal in­fra­struc­ture in re­gards to farm­ing is a fur­ther de­vi­ous and de­signed at­tempt to force all re­gions, states and ter­ri­to­ries of In­dia to sub­mit to a one-size, uni­form In­dian-cen­tric eco­nomic model. In­deed, the farm­ers of Pan­jaab have loudly protested that this will de­stroy their in­dige­nous lives; and place them at the mercy and preda­tory ac­tions of cor­po­rate trade or­gan­i­sa­tions like those of the Am­bani elite, which will buy up and mo­nop­o­lise the farm­ing in­fra-struc­ture of Pan­jaab for their sole pur­pose of profit.

Pan­jaab’s peo­ple, econ­omy and so­ci­ety, will be fur­ther re­duced to the profit-loss va­garies of the In­dian led cor­po­rate mon­sters – ap­proved by the In­dian mega-state. Big states pro­vide ready po­lit­i­cal and com­mer­cial space and fa­cil­ity for big cor­po­rates to op­er­ate and dom­i­nate.

This is an in­va­sive and dev­as­tat­ing en­croach­ment on the farm­ing base of Pan­jaab, which has been em­bed­ded and nur­tured over mil­len­nia and forms an in­te­gral and cen­tral part of Pan­jaabi life. Soil, farm­ing and food pro­duce: are defin­ing fea­tures of the land of five rivers.

Our re­la­tion­ship with farm­ing is more than just about profit and loss. Our farm­ers are an elan-vi­tal of Pan­jaabi life, em­body­ing our grass-root cul­ture, lan­guage, food, so­cial habits, Sikhi and much more.

There would be no Pan­jaab with­out its nat­ural farm­ing base, just as there would be no Pan­jaab with­out its rich lan­guage, its his­tory, its Gu­rus and Sikhi, its rich in­spir­ing his­tory of strug­gle, re­sis­tance and in­de­pen­dence.

Sadly, the In­dian po­lit­i­cal ex­per­i­ment of 73 years, has shown no signs of that plu­ral­ism and is ever more clearly and stri­dently mov­ing in the op­po­site di­rec­tion. It has failed to be­come a true democ­racy nor a union of self-de­ter­min­ing, au­tonomous na­tions. In­stead, it has proven it­self to be akin to one big po­lit­i­cal prison of peo­ples and na­tions.

The In­dian es­tab­lish­men­t’s ob­ses­sion with forc­ing it­self on the di­verse peo­ples and na­tions spread across the map which con­sti­tutes ‘In­dia’, and ‘In­di­an­is­ing’ every­thing; is very much part of the in­trin­sic de­fect of the foun­da­tion and stan­dard op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dure of the In­dian po­lit­i­cal state. Like other over-sized states around the world (e.g. China, Rus­sia, Brazil), the In­dian po­lit­i­cal elite wants to mo­nop­o­lise, con­trol, im­pose, forcibly in­doc­tri­nate and In­di­anise all things.

This in­se­cure po­lit­i­cal es­tab­lish­ment has failed to recog­nise, that the strength, ef­fi­cient ad­min­is­tra­tion, co­her­ence and sus­tain­abil­ity of any such enor­mous state (which en­com­passes the same ter­ri­tory as 26 in­de­pen­dent states of the Eu­ro­pean Union and four times its en­tire pop­u­la­tion), lies in sub­stan­tively em­pow­er­ing the di­verse na­tions and peo­ples; not di­min­ish­ing and de­plet­ing them.

Sadly, the In­dian po­lit­i­cal ex­per­i­ment of 73 years, has shown no signs of that plu­ral­ism and is ever more clearly and stri­dently mov­ing in the op­po­site di­rec­tion. It has failed to be­come a true democ­racy nor a union of self-de­ter­min­ing, au­tonomous na­tions. In­stead, it has proven it­self to be akin to one big po­lit­i­cal prison of peo­ples and na­tions.

The 73-year, post ‘in­de­pen­dence’, In­dian po­lit­i­cal ex­per­i­ment has achieved an ugly mix­ture of ram­pant hu­man rights atroc­i­ties, main­stream po­lice bru­tal­ity, rou­tine tor­ture, lack of es­sen­tial pub­lic ser­vices, de­nial of free­dom of speech and over­whelm­ing state-cen­tric au­thor­i­tar­i­an­ism on all sorts of lev­els.

The cur­rent Hathras case of a dev­as­tat­ing rape and phys­i­cal mu­ti­la­tion (re­sult­ing in death) of a Dalit fe­male, en­cap­su­lates all these com­pre­hen­sive fail­ures of In­dia. In­dia is a not just a se­verely sick body, but a ter­mi­nally ill one. It’s ag­o­nis­ing fi­nal decades, are fore­see­able. The In­dian state will not last for­ever.

Turn­ing to your spe­cific role as the Chief Min­is­ter of Pan­jaab, with all the scan­dals, bro­ken promises and fail­ures and abuses that you have ac­cu­mu­lated; in com­mon with your Badal col­leagues who spent two terms do­ing their no­to­ri­ous dam­age.

Turn­ing to your spe­cific role as the Chief Min­is­ter of Pan­jaab, with all the scan­dals, bro­ken promises and fail­ures and abuses that you have ac­cu­mu­lated; in com­mon with your Badal col­leagues who spent two terms do­ing their no­to­ri­ous dam­age.

If you have any rem­nant re­gard for Pan­jaab, now is the time to demon­strate that, more than ever. With Pan­jaab on the brink of life and death and the dis­af­fected peo­ple of Pan­jaab on the streets and roads with their open anger and re­jec­tion of the In­dian po­lit­i­cal sys­tem and es­tab­lish­ment; we in­vite you to show courage and prin­ci­ple.

We in­vite you to take cor­rec­tive ac­tion on all the mat­ters on which you had pre­vi­ously promised ac­tion but griev­ously failed. The drugs epi­demic is rav­aging away at Pan­jaab’s hu­man­ity. There is a need to en­sure at least one job in each fam­ily. Waiv­ing the loans of farm­ers and fam­i­lies. Hun­dreds of Pan­jaab’s farm­ers are dy­ing sui­ci­dally, un­der the sheer fi­nan­cial vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and degra­da­tion they are be­sieged with. Ef­fec­tive steps need to be taken im­me­di­ately to stop the daily abuses of the Guru Granth Sahib. Un­der your own gov­er­nance, rou­tine po­lice bru­tal­ity, tor­ture and all man­ner of vi­o­la­tions have openly con­tin­ued as be­fore and you need to live up to your promise of clean gov­er­nance.

We call upon you to pass a res­o­lu­tion in the Pun­jab Leg­isla­tive As­sem­bly to re­ject the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the three agri­cul­tural or­di­nances and de­clare from your gov­ern­ment that you openly and com­pre­hen­sively re­ject these su­per­im­pos­ing laws.

Your own col­leagues in your Pan­jaab Con­gress party, have pub­licly protested in­side and out­side the Pun­jab Leg­isla­tive As­sem­bly, that you have failed mis­er­ably on all counts and more.

Is it that, you do not feel any af­fec­tion or pa­tri­o­tism for Pan­jaab and its peo­ple? Is that, as a long-stand­ing po­lit­i­cal fam­ily -the House of Pa­tiala, you have al­ways felt in­clined to in­gra­ti­ate your­self with the pow­ers that be rather than Pan­jaab and the Pan­jabis. There is a clear need to clean up and em­power Pan­jaab. Are you the per­son who is will­ing to do that, be­fore you face an im­mi­nent down-fall at the next 2022 Pun­jab As­sem­bly elec­tion?

You can make an im­me­di­ate start on all the above, or you can con­tinue with the cur­rent drudgery that you have im­posed on Pan­jaab like your pre­ced­ing Chief Min­is­ters.

We call upon you to pass a res­o­lu­tion in the Pun­jab Leg­isla­tive As­sem­bly to re­ject the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the three agri­cul­tural or­di­nances and de­clare from your gov­ern­ment that you openly and com­pre­hen­sively re­ject these su­per­im­pos­ing laws.

We in­vite you to ini­ti­ate a com­pre­hen­sive re­con­fig­u­ra­tion of the Pan­jaab re­gional eco­nom­ics and state fi­nan­cial sup­port (in­clud­ing sub­si­dies) to the small-scale farm­ers of Pan­jaab. You can make an op­ti­mum ef­fort to do this.

We in­vite you to ini­ti­ate a com­pre­hen­sive re­con­fig­u­ra­tion of the Pan­jaab re­gional eco­nom­ics and state fi­nan­cial sup­port (in­clud­ing sub­si­dies) to the small-scale farm­ers of Pan­jaab. You can make an op­ti­mum ef­fort to do this.

This is a chance for you to re­verse your trail of fail­ures and bro­ken promises. If you are a true, au­then­tic Pan­jaabi, then you will ro­bustly stand up against the threats and en­croach­ment of the In­dian state cen­tral gov­ern­ment.

There is fur­ther a whole range of hu­man rights atroc­i­ties and geno­cide-re­lated mat­ters which re­main alive and burn­ing in Pan­jaab. This is the tens of thou­sands of ‘dis­ap­pear­ances’, the tyran­ni­cal cops like Sumedh Saini, the thou­sands of fake en­coun­ters, the mas­sive hu­man rights atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted dur­ing the ‘un­de­clared war’ (words of Jus­tice Ajit Singh Bains) on Pan­jaab from 1984 to 1995.

Maybe, the above con­cerns will trig­ger some ac­tion from your con­science. Maybe, maybe not.

The great words of Pan­jaab’s great heroic-sha­heed, Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale, are per­ti­nent: “I do not fear phys­i­cal death. Death of one’s con­science is ac­tual true death.”

Our or­gan­i­sa­tion re­mains com­mit­ted to the vi­sion of restor­ing Pan­jaab to its stolen in­de­pen­dent state­hood. Un­til, a peo­ple, a coun­try, a land, is al­lowed the free­dom to shape its own af­fairs and de­vel­op­ment (do­mes­ti­cally and in­ter­na­tion­ally); there can be no pro­tec­tion and se­cu­rity. Liv­ing un­der the va­garies of an­other power is im­pe­ri­al­ism in ac­tion.

Ul­ti­mately, our farm­ing, our econ­omy, our land, our hu­man rights and de­vel­op­ment will on only be se­cure and be able to flour­ish, when we are di­rectly in charge of our af­fairs; rather than the en­gulf­ing bully -the state of In­dia.

Ul­ti­mately, our farm­ing, our econ­omy, our land, our hu­man rights and de­vel­op­ment will on only be se­cure and be able to flour­ish, when we are di­rectly in charge of our af­fairs; rather than the en­gulf­ing bully -the state of In­dia.

The cur­rent re­bel­lious re­volt by Pan­jaab’s farm­ing peo­ple, di­rectly con­nects with the stream of mini, medium and lengthy strug­gles that its peo­ple have pur­sued con­stantly against the might of the In­dian state. We hope the cur­rent strug­gle will take Pan­jaab de­ci­sively sev­eral steps for­ward in re­cap­tur­ing its lost in­de­pen­dence.

“The only free­dom which de­serves the name is that of pur­su­ing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not at­tempt to de­prive oth­ers of theirs, or im­pede their ef­forts to ob­tain it,” said John Stu­art Mill and we will con­tinue to learn and im­bibe this in let­ter and spirit.

Yours sin­cerely,

Kesri Lehar UK & Kesri Lehar Scot­land