Farmers more resolute after govt talks fail for eighth time - After today’s meeting, we are even more determined to intensify the agitation - Kaur

Ravinder Kaur, office-bearer of the Jai Kisan Andolan said she had been driven to tears by the Centre’s insensitivity

Jai Kisan Andolan office-bearer Ravinder Kaur leaves Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi, the venue of the talks with the Centre, in tears on Friday evening. Kaur said many mothers had lost their sons and many daughters their fathers.: (PTI picture)

Anita Joshua   |   TT   |   New Delhi   |     09.01.21  :  The Centre’s obduracy drove her to tears on Friday but Ravinder Kaur, office-bearer of the Jai Kisan Andolan, has emerged from it more resolute than ever.

Kaur has told her family in Faridkot, Punjab, that she would now return only after the farm laws have been repealed. A niece’s birthday is coming up on Sunday and more such family occasions are on the way. But she will not be leaving her picket at Singhu anytime soon.

“After today’s meeting, we are even more determined to intensify the agitation in the systematic way in which we have been scaling it up since November 26,” Kaur told The Telegraph over the phone.

She said she had been driven to tears by the government’s insensitivity. The PTI news agency had earlier in the evening quoted her as saying many mothers have lost their sons and many daughters have lost their fathers. 

“We have lost 70 people, and this was acknowledged by the ministers themselves when they condoled with us over the deaths of the ‘martyrs’ at the last meeting,” Kaur told this newspaper. “They come to us for votes but look how they are trying to tire us down with one meeting after another, where they go on repeating the same thing.”

She added: “People are sleeping in a cremation ground (in Tikri), a place where no one wants to spend a moment more than is absolutely necessary even during the day. Yet the government and its ‘Godi (lapdog) Media’ are constantly maligning us.”

Kaur has been at the protest site on the Singhu border since December 5, having arrived with her 82-year-old mother, 42-year-old younger brother and 13-year-old nephew. Her mother has returned; Kaur’s children have visited her at the protest site. 

Asked if she was herself a farmer, Kaur sounded proud as she said: “I am, I have farming in my blood. I know what is at stake.”