On Wednesday, Lohri was celebrated across the world, particularly in India with a great sense of joy. This year’s Lohri marks the first solstice celebration after the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the world and turned the fate of may upside down. Hopes and prayers were abounding for a better year ahead. Always associated with joy, laughter, jubilation, dance and music – this year’s Lohri on the borders of Delhi was celebrated with reverberating chants of protestors wishing death to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A festival of unparalleled hope and happiness was reduced to a sad occasion surrounded by the aura of death.
Folk songs of Punjab associated with Lohri were fudged and defiled – only to satisfy the protestors. The iconic Lohri folk song – Sundar Mundariye was defiled by changing the lyrics to “Singhu Tikriye, Ho! Tera Sabbar Niyara, Ho!” and “Pindan Vichon Pind Suneenda, Pind Suneenda Tikri; Vich Tikri De Lagiya Morcha, Phirdi Lokai Nikhri.” The original traditional song is a tribute to undivided Punjab’s very own Robin Hood – Dulla Bhatti. The legendary hero would rescue young women from abductors during the tyrannical Mughal reign. He would rob the corrupt wealthy and share the booty with the poor in undivided Punjab. According to folklore, Bhatti arranged the marriage of Sundar and Mundri, daughters of a local priest. Lohri, ever since, is also a festival associated with marriage.
The protesting farmers celebrated Lohri by burning copies of the three farm reforms – an act which bears testimony to their foolishness. In a video which has now gone viral on social media, a group of women protestors are seen wishing death to the Prime Minister of the country – as they take to chanting, “haaye haaye Modi mar ja tu!” The women also list out all that Modi has sold off in the country – from schools to trains to mandis. Of course, these wild insinuations are all lies of the highest order. Yet, they all contribute to energy level additions for the protesting women wishing death upon PM Modi.
Lohri was also celebrated by protestors in Abohar by burning Prime Minister Modi’s effigies. In Dhanbad, similar activities took place. A festival of joy has been effectively reduced to a morbid show of bizarrity by those protesting against the farm reforms. In Rohtak, effigies of Prime Minister Modi and the Haryana CM Monohar Lal Khattar were due to be blown up in flames on Thursday – the day India observes Makar Sankranti.
Punjab farmers celebrate Lohri as an auspicious beginning of the harvest festival. People wear their brightest clothes. Singing and dancing form an intrinsic part of the celebrations.
These women giving death calls on such a pious occasion are NOT FARMERS, they're TERRORISTS!!! pic.twitter.com/FvUOrSPFwp
— Priti Gandhi (Modi ka Parivar) (@MrsGandhi) January 13, 2021
The shocking developments come in the backdrop of the Supreme Court staying the implementation of the farm reforms, which were passed by the country’s parliament in September last year. The farmers’ unions have said that they will not appear before any committee, and will not return home until the laws are repealed. To achieve their motives, the protestors are also willing to defile the oldest of Punjab’s traditions and festivals.