Charanjit Bhullar
Chandigarh, 29 December
There is life on one side and the government on the other side, and between them is the Khanuri border where the protestors have been tied up since February. The life in the trolley standing in the pit has been enduring like the peasantry of Punjab. The Supreme Court is concerned for this life, just like the mothers and peasant arms of Punjab. Bapu Hazura Singh lived to the full age of 107 years. The life of son Jagjit Singh Dallewal is now in the hands of the government.
34 days have passed since Dallewal’s death fast of 70 years. Who will win in this ongoing war between life and power, the future has to decide. As the days pass by, this land of soil is sometimes looking at the heirs of the Green Revolution and sometimes at the face of Delhi. Dallewal wants to get a legal guarantee of the price of the crops, to waive the debt and not to become a trap for any farmer. Cancer is taking a different test of Dallewal. The key to the breath of this peasant leader is tied to the silk thread of the center. When talking to Dallewal’s family, they were seen struggling with their existence.
When he was a child, Bapu Hazura Singh used to put his son Jagjit on his shoulders and say, “Sher Bagya!” Oh look at your fields. Today, Delhi is far away for the same son and he is numb, peasant slogans ringing in his ears boost his courage.
‘Interest is dearer than the original’, grandson Jigarjot Singh Khanori is looking at his grandfather lying in the trolley standing in the front. Dada Dallewal is encouraging. For many days, the grandson has stopped eating bread and water, he is not interested in school anymore. Grandfather-grandchild love is so much that Jigarjot cannot breathe without Baba.
Before going on a fast, Dallewal transferred 17 acres of his property to the family name, the largest of which was 10.5 acres to his grandson. Dallewal’s father passed away in 2011 and mother Ajmer Kaur retired in 1994. His elder brother Ranjit, who brought him to the Kisan Union by holding his finger, has also passed away today. On the same 27th January, wife Harjitinder Kaur passed away. The family has only son Gurpinder Singh, daughter-in-law Harpreet Kaur and grandson Jigarjot. Dallewal says that ‘Ah, the fields are all my family.’ Dallewal is no longer concerned about the difference between life and death to save the fields.
When the dreams are crushed, the hope falls, then one or the other Dallewal has to jump tied to death. The Indian government seems to have lost its conscience and Dallewal is on his last breath. Doctors say that blood pressure is not in our hands anymore. Dallewal says that there is pressure on the minds of those thousands of farming families who have lost their farms. In ‘Kisan-e-Jang’, hundreds of farmers have appeared whose breath is on the verge of dying.
When Dallewal was studying at Barjindra College in Faridkot, mother Ajmer Kaur used to steal for both her children. Sometimes Raja Raja would settle. Today, the mother is not in this family whose son has not touched food for 34 days. During his youth, when the buses did not stop in the village, Jagjit and his colleagues stopped the buses and built a bus stand. During his studies, he joined the student organization in college. The elder brother Ranjit was the treasurer of the Kisan Union, used Jagjit to keep the accounts. Jagjit Dallewal started as the president of the village unit of the union. Then he was block president of BKU (Ekta) and district president for ten years. He became the state president of the organization in 2016 after the death of the state president of the union Pishaura Singh.
After the Kisan movement of Delhi, they started leading the United Kisan Morcha (Non-Political). Since February 13, 2023, the war is now sitting on the Khanuri border. The path of the fields, sitting in the mud in Punjab, is now setting an example for the peasant existence. A few years ago, Rakesh Tikait poured tears into this example and now Dallewal is breathing heavily.
Even a close friend refused
Jagjit Dallewal’s childhood friend ex-serviceman Sukhdev Singh says that ‘he never backs down’. Army Sukhdev recently met Dallewal and said in his ear, ‘Break your fast for the sake of God.’ Jagjit Dallewal flatly refused. Soldier Sukhdev Singh says that Jagjit was fond of becoming a film actor during his college studies and used to read books.