India's true democrat: Joginder Singh

Farmer leader Joginder Singh Ugrahan has emerged as the most visible patriotic foil to the Hindu nationalists who demonise their ideological opponents as antinational hound and silence them Ugrahans emergence was on account of the members of his outfit the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan one of the 35 farm unions protesting outside Delhi choosing to observe the United Nations Human Rights Day December 10 by displaying pictures of intellectuals and activists imprisoned for allegedly fomenting violence in Bhima Koregaon in 2018 and in Delhi in 2020Their choice of day to protest subliminally labelled the incarcerated activists as prisoners of conscience and rebutted the Modi governments depiction of them as Urban Naxals and Islamic jihadists It required chutzpah to challenge the Hindu nationalists narrative in their lair Even the other farmer unions demurred They passed a resolution to say their movement was for the sole purpose to have the three new farm laws repealedCriticism has not had Ugrahan to equivocate on his position Last week in a telephonic chat with me he lavished praise on Gautam Navlakha lodged in jail as an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case for siding with farmers for consistently opposing the appropriation of their land Ugrahan said If I do not speak for Gautam Navlakha who do I then speak forIt would seem Ugrahan believes that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere including in Punjab Here is the man who did not go to a liberal university to learn about democratic rights and empathy Here is the leader who discovered these virtues through his many years of participation in the farmers struggleA matriculate he joined the Indian army in 1973 and on his discharge four years later returned to his village Ugrahan in Sangrur district Punjab to till the family land A voracious reader of newspapers and books Ugrahan became convinced of the need for a farmers movement for improving their condition He joined the BKU in 1982 but left it in 2002 because of the growing tendency of its leaders to flirt with politicians and represent the interest of big farmers Thus was born BKU Ekta Ugrahan whose leader a Jat by caste sought to bridge the classcaste divide in rural PunjabUgrahan created a buzz when he supported a protest by agricultural labourers in Ludhiana in 2005 serving them tea and washing their utensils This was a revolutionary step for a Jat to take as agriculture labourers largely comprise Dalits Since then they never fell out of his focus Ugrahan wants the maximum area a person can hold under the Land Ceiling Act to be revised downward and the surplus land to be distributed to the landless and marginal farmers His union ensured monetary compensation was paid to agricultural labourers when land was acquired to build a power plant in Gobindpura village Mansa district earlier this decade They also had the power company return 186 acres of land to farmersIn 2004 they took on the state machinery deployed to confiscate the land of a farmer in Chathewala village Bathinda district after he defaulted on a loan Their protracted struggle secured for farmers a compensation amount that was around 70 per cent more than the rate the Punjab government had fixed for the land a private company acquired near Barnala city They have compelled the government to agree in principle to provide monetary relief to the families of those who commit suicideIn Ekta Ugrahans agitations women have been participants their presence not merely token For instance in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic the Ekta Ugrahan ordered the older leaders to stay indoors and handed over the reins to the young with Harinder Bindu appointed as ad hoc general secretary Union ministers who had the temerity to tag the Ekta Ugrahan as Khalistani should be told that Bindus father died fighting against militants in a village where he had organised a cultural programmePunjabs democratic ethos has undoubtedly shaped Ugrahans personality Punjab was the state where roads were blocked to protest against the reading down of Article 370 and almost all farmer unions agitated against the exclusion of Muslims from the ambit of the Citizenship Amendment Act That revolutionary nationalist Bhagat Singh and his Naujawan Bharat Sabha which was revived in the 1970s should still mesmerise Punjabis including Ugrahan speaks of their inherent idealism and radicalismPerhaps resistance to power has been culturally imbibed in them because Sikhism evolved in the crucible of the struggle involving the Sikh Gurus against the centralising power of the Mughals The ninth Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur before he was beheaded on Aurangzebs order elegantly articulated the spirit behind that resistance The truly enlightened onesAre those who neither incite fear in othersNor fear anyone themselvesThis tradition of fearless resistance is what perhaps had Ugrahan tell me during our conversation Are we under Hitlers rule Why cant the Prime Minister repeal the farm laws He thinks only he is right and all others wrong This attitude is terrible for democracy Indeed a true democrat fears none even as he wages a battle for the benefit of othersThe writer is a senior journalist Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news