The opposition of the Centre’s three farm laws is turning more political and religious with every passing day. The majority of people opposing the farm laws are radical Sikh farmers from Punjab, and people like Yograj Singh, father of Yuvraj Singh even talk about Sikh supremacism.
The latest mixture of opposition against the farm laws and talks of Sikh supremacism comes from a Uttarakhand Sikh body which has called for a community boycott of Sikh members who are supporting the three agricultural laws. Many Sikh farmers from Uttarakhand visited Union Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar along with state education minister Arvind Pandey and extended the support to farm laws, but this irked many Sikh supremacists.
President of Uttarakhand and UP Sikh Sangathan Jasvir Singh Virk called for a community boycott of Sikhs who supported the farm laws and visited the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. He even alleged that many of those people are not real Sikhs, but Hindus who donned turbans to look like Sikhs. “Strangely, many of them were just wearing turbans to look like Sikhs, and a majority of them were not even farmers but were into sand and gravel business,” Virk claimed.
Moreover, Virk proudly claimed that such Sikhs who were supporting the farm laws were shown black flags by Sikh supremacists. “We showed black flags and raised slogans against them, following which they dispersed,” he said.
The Sikh supremacist groups are making the support/opposition to farm laws a religious issue because the primary opposition to farm laws is coming from Punjab, where the farmers are being misled by the Congress government.
The farmers across the country have extended their support to farm laws and many farmer groups have even organized celebrations for being freed from the clutches of middlemen, corrupt government officials, and lazy bureaucrats. On Monday, 10 farmer organisations from various states like Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Bihar and Haryana, associated with All India Kisan Coordination Committee called upon the Union Agriculture Minister and extended their support for the three farm laws which will revolutionize India’s farming sector.
Only a small group of farmers who are misled by Congress and are being supported by Khalistani elements are opposing the laws. It is no secret that Khalistani elements have hijacked the ongoing farmers’ protests and that a variety of opposition parties are scoring brownie points with the ongoing agitation. Effectively, what vested interest groups and opposition parties are doing is driving a wedge between the farmers of Punjab and Haryana, and the rest of India.
It must be noted that unlike Punjab and Haryana, 86 per cent of the total farm population in the country is comprised of small and marginal growers, who have been hoping for years on end that the agriculture sector of India to be liberalised, and that they are freed from the shackles of inhibitive schemes which happen to benefit only the rich zamindars of the two North Indian states alone.
Given the enormous support for farm laws across the country, including the Sikh farmers of other states, the Khalistanis are now bringing religious angle in the opposition to farm laws, and have called for social boycott of those supporting the laws. Mixing economics with religion would only malign the image of Sikhs across the country. So, the well-wishers of the great religion must come forward and oppose the diktat issued by extremists like Virk.
