1984 in context of Punjab is generally read & associated with the Sikh Movement & Indira Gandhi’s decision to call in army. But very few people know what was a punjabi farmer upto in 1984.

THREAD.

By 1980s the green revolution had started creating disillusionment in Punjabi farmers. The hybrid varieties of seeds had started sucking nutrients & water from soil, the yield was very good but govt procurement policy changed after 1978 leading to piling up of heaps of grains.

The earliest campaign related to the current #FarmersProtests2020 was started by BKU on 31Jan 1984, a Punjab wide call for ‘Raasta Roko’ was given and it lasted for 15 days.

Govt media Doordarshan portrayed it as Sikh extremists blocking the roads even then.

No credit was given to farmers, the protests were not even acknowledged till first 5 days. BKU was very clear in its stand of not having any Kharkus supporting the blockade. Stage was denied to kharkus who approached on GT road.

Seeing the organic movement, Indira Gandhi govt conceded & farmers got 12.5cr rupees for damages caused to cotton crop due to pests. Farmers had blamed the faulty pesticides for which an inquiry was never brought in. Pesticide lobby bought govt to bury the matter.

On March 12, 1984, BKU started the gherao of Punjab Raj Bhavan at Chd protesting against the high electricity rates, demanding higher procurement price, demand for agriculture cost commission to determine cost of crops. There was no MSP system at that time.

On March 18, an agreement was reached and written assurance to procure crop was given along with recommendations to appoint commission for determining and setting crop price. BKU had thus won twice in three months already.

During April 1984, BKU focused its campaign on indebtedness. The farmers had started committing suicide in Pb due to the fast pace of keeping up with fertilisers, machinery etc of the green revolution. The dream of green revolution sold by Rockefeller , Ford & World bank was over

BKU started ‘Karza Roko’ aandolan. The debt collectors were gheraoed and notices were hung in villages that “without proper accounting the recovery of loans is illegal”. People were committing suicides due to shame meted out by debt collectors.

May 1984 saw the farmers agitation at its peak in Punjab. Punjab Bhavan was gheraoed from 10th May to 18th May, the State was under governor rule. 15-20 thousand farmers were sitting outside the Raj Bhawan for one week. Langars were set up very much like Singhu Border is atm.

From 1st May to 7th May, the farmers had decided to boycott grain markets to register their anger against govt’s procurement policy. On 23 May,1984 Harchand Singh Longowal, announced that next phase of agitation would be to boycott FCI.

Please note that unlike Badals of today, Harchand Longowal was allowed by farmers to be their face. This also goes to show the decline and trust deficit people of Punjab have in current Akali Dal. Anyway, the boycott was attempted and farmers continued to sit in upto June.

By end of May, the curfew was imposed in Punjab and the farmers were forced out of Chandigarh. What happened next is the history that most people know and understand.
Saint Bhindranwale believed ASR to be resolution of all farmers problems and called Longowal attempt as joke.

This was a small bite from Punjab’s farmer movements. There have been other movements as well which I will document in a better way, possibly a book. #FarmersProtest #History