A 30-year-old engineer from Hyderabad has flown to Delhi on Saturday to join the protesting farmers. Having quit his job, he is now on a hunger strike with the protesters and says he is here to say.
Manoj M, a resident of Himayat Nagar in Hyderabad, sits without a banner or any placard, almost unnoticed. His brother, a doctor, video calls him and asks him not to observe the fast for more than three days because of the impact on his health. “My plan is to continue the strike for 15 days. However, I drink water,” said Mr. Manoj.
Though he or his family are not farmers, Mr. Manoj said he was in Delhi to support them because if farmers stop farming, the eventual result will be a huge loss to the economy.
“At the moment, the laws will only impact the farmers but in a few years, it’s going to impact everyone. If and when farmers in Punjab and Haryana decide to stop farming, the cost of crops will increase and subsequently, transportation costs will increase and by the time, it reaches people like us, the rates would have skyrocketed,” he said, adding that this should not be only a farmer’s movement but a pan-India movement.
“When the Modi government had taken office, $1 was worth ₹48 and now it’s worth ₹74. The eventual result of farmers’ disappointment with be an economic crisis,” he said.
Mr Manoj, who completed his Bachelors in Technology in 2011 and completed his Masters in Business Administration from Australia in 2015, said that he had quit his job at the end of November because he wanted to work for the people.
“I am glad I quit because now I have been able to join the protest as well. The company clause to not be associated with any movement would have restricted this,” he said.
Back home, he said, people in and around his home were not very concerned about the farmers’ protests. “I was following the news and in Hyderabad, there isn’t enough media coverage of the protests but my father exports vegetables after buying from the Mandis so he is indirectly related to farming,” he said.
Mr Manoj has been staying at Guru Teg Bahadur Memorial having come to the protest site straight from the airport. He understands Hindi and can even speak it haltingly — “thoda-thoda (a little),” he said. “On Sunday, I spent time walking around 25kms of the protest site. People here are accepting me and supporting me,” he said.
