BAREILLY/RUDRAPUR: In protest against “no action” being taken against Union minister Ajay Mishra, whose convoy had allegedly run farmers over at Banbirpur in Lakhimpur Kheri during a black flag protest on October 3, farmer bodies across the country have planned an effigy burning protest on Saturday. Farmers from Terai, at the heart of the resistance over the death of four farmers and a journalist, will not be joining to avoid flare-ups in the “sensitive” area.
“The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM, an umbrella body of farmer organisations) has called for putla dahan (effigy burning) on October 16 across the country. Upon our request, it has agreed to not include the Terai region in the plan because anti-social elements could cause communal tension,” Bhartiya Sikh Sangathan president Jasbir Singh Virk said in a video statement on Friday. The effigy burning is part of a nationwide farmers’ protest plan demanding that minister Ajay Mishra be sacked for “criminal conspiracy”.
“The Terai region is sensitive at the moment. We don’t want to do anything that may cause a rift between people of different faiths. Many rumours targeting our community were spread after the Lakhimpur violence. We don’t want to give anyone a chance again,” Virk told TOI. “We have urged our Sikh brothers here to not join the effigy burning and stop one another from doing so.”
The SKM had initially planned the effigy burning protest on Friday, coinciding with Dussehra. On Thursday, that was rescheduled to Saturday so that religious sentiments were not hurt.
Responding to Virk’s call, local farmers said they will ensure no effigies are burnt in the region, which stretches across UP and Uttarakhand. “We want action against the minister but we also want to ensure religious sentiments are not hurt,” said Balhar Singh from Lucknow.
Another leg of the farmers’ protest, the Asthi Kalash Yatra, meanwhile, continues. On Tuesday, the Antim Ardas Bhog, a funerary ritual, was conducted for the four farmers who died — Lovepreet Singh, Gurwinder Singh, Nachattar Singh and Daljeet Singh — and a memorial meeting organised for them and the journalist who was also killed that day, Raman Kashyap. Their ashes were then sent out across the country to be immersed in holy waters before the mahapanchayat planned on October 26 in Lucknow. “It is a Shahid Kalash Yatra,” said SKM spokesperson Jagtar Singh Bajwa. “After being taken across the Terai, the ashes will be immersed in the Ganga on October 23. We have also decided to build a memorial in honour of the five men on the land the Gurdwara committee owns at Tikunia in Lakhimpur Kheri.”
