The ten-kilo­me­tre ra­dius sur­round­ing the bor­der of Delhi with North-In­dian states is a vast can­vas of Panth and Pun­jab, which has per­me­ated the Farm­ers Mor­cha in an amaz­ing dis­play of Pun­jabi sol­i­dar­ity. The Sikh spirit of Chardikala -For­ever As­cen­dant and Sar­bat da Bhala -Wel­fare of all hu­man­ity, per­vades every par­tic­i­pant and pre­vails in every ac­tion hap­pen­ing on ground zero. The pop­u­la­tion of Pun­jab, Haryana, Ra­jasthan, parts of Ut­tar Pradesh and the con­sci­en­tious peo­ple across the coun­try and the world are salut­ing the role of the Sikh masses in sup­port­ing the Farm­ers Mor­cha.

THIRTY-TWO FARM­ERS OR­GAN­I­SA­TIONS FROM PUN­JAB -OF ALL HUES AND SHADES HAVE GAR­NERED THE SPIRIT OF THE PEO­PLE OF PUN­JAB.  They have in­fused life into the lives of farm­ers who were at break­ing point suc­cumb­ing to sui­cides for decades. There is no worldly ex­pla­na­tion for this. It is the will of the peo­ple, the true spirit of God and god­li­ness in ac­tion. The grace of the Almighty to peo­ple who have suf­fered long enough. Pun­jab has once again been des­tined to show the path in the face of au­toc­racy to the peo­ple of the sub-con­ti­nent.

The Sikh re­li­gious id­iom, the spirit of Guru Nanak amongst the spirit-born peo­ple, Sakhis -the in­spi­ra­tional fa­bles, the leg­endary tales of Sikh re­bel­lion -is the ful­crum of the farm­ers’ ag­i­ta­tion.

The United Colours of Pun­jab -cut­ting across all so­cial, re­li­gious, cul­tural, eco­nomic and po­lit­i­cal bar­ri­ers is demon­stra­tive of the unique flavour of this con­flict with BJP’s Naren­dra Modi gov­ern­ment.

The ex­cite­ment of The Wire’s man­ag­ing ed­i­tor in ask­ing the Ni­hang Sikhs who they are, per­haps see­ing them for the first time in her life, the be­wil­der­ment of many a Web jour­nal­ist at see­ing the cook­ing of Lan­gar in huge mil­i­tary-style uten­sils, the awe at the self­less ser­vice be­ing done by big and small non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions, the sweet ren­di­tion of re­li­gious hymns, the hype of the po­etry and brav­ery rhetoric of the tra­di­tional bards, the women on the fore­front and at the back­end do­ing Sewa, the chil­dren study­ing for ex­ams and sup­port­ing their troupes, speech af­ter speech by Sikh thinkers, ac­tivists and re­searchers ex­tolling the Sikh qual­i­ties which made them lay siege to Delhi is a treat to watch.

For the first time in many decades, the Ni­hang Sikhs, have come out of their habi­tat in Anand­pur Sahib; the world me­dia, the com­mon man is see­ing them in their pris­tine glory of Sikh uni­form and the spirit of Chardikala.-For­ever As­cen­dant. They have added a new di­men­sion, a new colour to the whole spec­trum of peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ing in the protests. The Ni­hang on the horse­back has re­vived the im­agery of Sikhs liv­ing on horse­backs and be­ing sym­bols of re­bel­lion.

The role of the Guru ka Lan­gar of the Sikh com­mu­nity from across the globe is para­mount to­day at the Farm­ers Mor­cha and is earn­ing ac­co­lades and recog­ni­tion from all and sundry. The Sikh spirit of Sar­bat da Bhalla is all-per­me­at­ing.

For the Sikhs them­selves, who through their sheer par­tic­i­pa­tion have con­verted the Farm­ers’ Mor­cha into a Peo­ples’ Mor­cha, they are wit­ness­ing the prac­ti­cal ver­sion of Kirt Karna, Naam Japna and Vandh Chakna -Hard work, Re­mem­ber­ing God’s Name and Shar­ing, in­sep­a­ra­ble from the Sikh ethos, in thick and in thin.

The par­tic­i­pa­tion of the peo­ple of Pun­jab -men, women and chil­dren, of all av­o­ca­tions, all as­pi­ra­tions, all ide­olo­gies, sink­ing all dif­fer­ences and dis­tinc­tions is a trib­ute to the Pun­jabi spirit in the Peo­ples’ Mor­cha.

The In­dian me­dia will con­tinue its search for new ad­jec­tives, plat­i­tudes and per­ni­cious an­gles to un­der­mine this Farm­ers move­ment and any other rights move­ment of Pun­jab. It will not be out of place to men­tion that in the last seven decades, the In­dian state, the In­dian me­dia still con­tin­ues its sin­is­ter at­tempt to pseudo-sec­u­larise every protest, which is noth­ing but an un­nec­es­sary side-kick, ac­tu­ally a self-goal.

We are now on the thresh­old of vic­tory of truth, pa­tience, sol­i­dar­ity and com­mit­ment. The Sikh spirit is pro­vid­ing warmth, suc­cour and sup­port in the bit­ing De­cem­ber cold to all the teem­ing mil­lions bathed in the United Colours of Pun­jab -colours of dis­sent, colours of re­bel­lion and colours of hope against the un­re­lent­ing and un­bend­ing gov­ern­ment of In­dia.

The Nis­han Sahib -the Sikh in­signia, flut­ter­ing atop ve­hi­cles and tents be­stowed its bless­ings on the Sikh young and old. It is the spirit-born Sikhs of Guru Nanak who braved the wa­ter can­nons on their chests and suf­fered the tear gas shells that en­abled the march to Delhi and strongly en­hanced the bar­gain­ing power of the farm­ers.

The Ma­ha­gath­band­han of Farm­ers de­cided on the Delhi Challo in March 2020 and the 32 or­gan­i­sa­tions of Pun­jab farm­ers de­cided to take up the march to Delhi as a cul­mi­na­tion of its three-months cam­paign across the state of Pun­jab. Yet, no­body in its wildest imag­i­na­tion, thought that the Mor­cha would take this shape, size and turn. God Almighty and the Gu­rus have blessed the farm­ers of Pun­jab and the farm­ing com­mu­nity across the re­gion.

The in­de­pen­dent me­dia across the world, the plethora of so­cial me­dia of Pun­jab is recog­nis­ing the role of the Sikh re­li­gion in the Farm­ers Mor­cha. The ubiq­ui­tous tur­ban of the Sikhs, the Du­patta of the Sikh ladies dom­i­nates the land­scape. Every one from Haryana to Ra­jasthan to Ut­tar Pradesh to Tamil Nadu is ac­knowl­edg­ing the lead of the farm­ers of Pun­jab. No­body is naive enough not to know that all farm­ers of Pun­jab are Sikhs.

The ubiq­ui­tous tur­ban of the Sikhs, the Du­patta of the Sikh ladies dom­i­nates the land­scape.

His­tory is record­ing every­thing. His­tory is wit­ness­ing the undy­ing spirit of the Sikhs. This roll-out of the true Sikh spirit can­not be crushed by be­laboured speeches of In­dian Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi or the slang of the likes of Arnab Goswami.

The sup­port across the world from the Sikh Di­as­pora is be­cause of the Sikh spirit and not be­cause of any other rea­son. Sikhs across the world see this move­ment as the con­sol­i­da­tion of the Sikh fra­ter­nity to fos­ter the Sikh iden­tity and the har­bin­ger of a route for the cor­rec­tion and pro­tec­tion of the rights of the peo­ple of Pun­jab.

The roll-out of the true Sikh spirit can­not be crushed by be­laboured speeches of In­dian Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi or the slang of the likes of Arnab Goswami.

Bring­ing the gov­ern­ment on its knees seek­ing with­drawal of the three new Farm laws and two or­di­nances is the first vic­tory that Pun­jab will taste in decades.  It will surely lead to a rev­o­lu­tion in the agri­cul­ture of Pun­jab, will re­duce the sui­cides, in­crease co­op­er­a­tion amongst the mar­ginal and big farm­ers and cre­ate a new aware­ness about agri­cul­ture pol­icy.

The farm­ers of Pun­jab will now think a hun­dred times be­fore lap­ping up any pro­posal of the gov­ern­ment or the mar­ket­ing push by the pri­vate sec­tor for long-term prof­its, new fer­til­iz­ers and the works. The youth, hereto­fore, un­in­ter­ested in agrar­ian work will once again have a relook at his farms and how he or she can make them pro­duc­tive enough to stay put in Pun­jab than to flee the state for greener pas­tures.

The bon­homie of the farm­ers of Pun­jab and Haryana at this Farm­ers’ Mor­cha may fos­ter a broth­er­hood whereby there can be a mu­tu­ally ne­go­ti­ated res­o­lu­tion on the long-drawn wa­ters is­sue. A change in the farm pro­duce may help in con­serv­ing ground­wa­ter. The pos­si­bil­i­ties thrown up are end­less.

The bon­homie of the farm­ers of Pun­jab and Haryana at this Farm­ers’ Mor­cha may fos­ter a broth­er­hood whereby there can be a mu­tu­ally ne­go­ti­ated res­o­lu­tion on the long-drawn wa­ters is­sue.

The neo-Sikh lead­er­ship, ris­ing up­wards on the fringes of the move­ment is do­ing amaz­ing work in stand­ing in sup­port of the farm­ers’ lead­ers and must con­tinue to do the same. All at­tempts by the In­dian me­dia to cre­ate a rift must be nipped in the bud. The bat­tle within can wait. Let us fight and win the war with the pow­ers that be in the gov­ern­ment, me­dia and the crony cor­po­rate sec­tor.

We are now on the thresh­old of vic­tory of truth, pa­tience, sol­i­dar­ity and com­mit­ment. The Sikh spirit is pro­vid­ing warmth, suc­cour and sup­port in the bit­ing De­cem­ber cold to all the teem­ing mil­lions bathed in the United Colours of Pun­jab -colours of dis­sent, colours of re­bel­lion and colours of hope against the un­re­lent­ing and un­bend­ing gov­ern­ment of In­dia.