NAWANSHAHR:Kirti Kisan Union, a prominent faction of farmers’ unions in Malwa and Doaba regions of Punjab and its youth wing, today held a conference of farmers of Doaba region at the historic town of Rahon, 7 km from here, dedicated to the 350th birth anniversary of the great warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.
A large number of farmers including women and youth from Nawanshahr, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts attended the conference which bore special significance during the time of their ongoing struggle against recently introduced anti-farmer farm laws by the Modi government.
Addressing the conference, union’s state finance secretary Harmesh Singh Dhesi, district Nawanshahr president Surinder Singh Bains, district Jalandhar president Santokh Singh Sandhu, district Hoshiarpur president Jagtar Singh Bhinder, district Kapurthala president Balwinder Singh Bhullar, among others, said that the historical legacy of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur should not be forgotten esp in present times when Central government led by Modi was out to help corporates to snatch away their lands.
“It was Baba Banda Singh Bahadur who had created a storm of people's power by giving the ownership of land to the ‘halwahak farmers’, a step which later blew up the government of Sirhind, ” they said, adding, “the ownership rights of the land was a great revolution carried out by Baba Banda Singh ji in which the soul of an equal society propagated by Sikhism rests”. Leaders said that some historians did not do justice to Baba Banda Singh though his contribution to Sikh history and toiling masses is huge, besides his sacrifice which is unparalleled.
Farmer leaders said that today when the fascist Modi government at the Center had introduced three ‘draconian’ agricultural laws and Electricity Bill 2020 to snatch the lands of the country's farmers from them and hand them over to the corporates, in such a situation the path of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur is a way for the farmers. “The present struggle of the farmers needs to be sharpened like the edge of Baba ji's dagger, ” they said while asking farmers not to rest till the repeal of these black laws. They said that in order to derail the present struggle of the farmers against these black laws, conspiracies are being hatched which need to be kept in mind. “The unity of the farmers' organizations in the struggle, maintaining its present tempo, spreading it nationwide, the matching manoeuvrings and the cooperation of fraternal organizations can bring the Modi government to its knees, ” further added the leaders.
The conference was also addressed by Taranjit Singh Uppal, Gurpal Singh Pala, Tarsem Singh Bannemal, Tarsem Singh Bains, Kulwinder Singh Chahal, Makhan Singh Bhanmajara, Sadhu Singh, Seva Singh, Avtar Singh Kat, Karnail Singh Urapar and Paramjit Singh Sangha.
The conference passed resolutions to repeal three Agriculture Laws and Electricity Bill 2020, to cancel the cases registered against the farmers leaders and workers under the guise of Corona, and to take the farmers' struggle to victory.