Jind, Kaithal, Hissar: Mewa Singh is defiant. Haryana in under a lockdown until 31 May due to a surge in Covid-19 cases, but Singh opens his little shop in Jind district’s Karsindhu village everyday, where he repairs and oils grass cutters.
If a policeman patrolling the area asks him to shut shop, the 68-year-old pauses to hurl an abuse and gets back to his grease.
For Singh and others like him in Karsindhu — part of Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s stronghold — a lockdown means death by hunger and poverty, especially in the absence of state provision for daily wages.
Breaching the lockdown is also a way for many associated with the farmers’ agitation to “boycott the ruling party and its leaders”, whom they accuse of “backstabbing them” by lodging fake cases to end the movement.
Moreover, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s move to inaugurate a Covid facility in Hisar during the lockdown, with allegedly 400 people around him, didn’t help the state’s communication amid the pandemic.
Anger with the state authorities over all of these issues has pushed the residents of eight villages across Jind, Kaithal and Hisar to “boycott the lockdown” and any “initiatives by the state”, including setting up of Covid care and testing centres.
“Are governments only to pass firmans (orders)?” Singh asks.
“One day they get up and say lockdown, if we defy it they send these policemen to beat us up. How will we earn our next meal if we do not step out? I will shut shop and return home if the government gives me my daily wage. Will they do that?” Singh asks, and then hurls an abuse without missing a beat.
“They say it is a deadly disease, where are the doctors… the medicines? There is a big lock at the Covid care centre the government set up here as there is no staff. Why should we listen to these leaders, when we do not matter to them at all,” Singh asks.
He adds that there is a “possibility that the virus may kill us, but this hunger will definitely kill us, if we do not step out to work”.
ThePrint visited three villages that have called for disregarding the lockdown — Karsindhu in Jind, and Songal and Pai in Kaithal. Five more villages — Danauda Kalan and Dahola in Jind, Masudpur and Datta in Hisar, and Kharak Pandva in Kaithal — are also following suit.
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‘We weren’t allowed inside the village’
In Songal and Pai, the residents have even disallowed authorities to set up a Covid care facility or a testing centre.
Earlier this month, when a team from the state health department along with the chief medical officer and tehsildar went to Songal, it was asked to leave.
“We went to the village with beds, mattresses and other resources, to set up a Covid care centre, for villagers to isolate, in case they show any Covid-like symptoms, but people started resisting and sent us back,” says Dharamveer, a revenue officer who was in the team.
“We tried to explain to them that the virus was spreading to rural parts and that many are falling ill, but they did not even let us enter. We did not go after that,” he adds.
But the residents blame the authorities for their resistance.
“Why should we trust them now? If they were any good, the health centre here would have had medical professionals. But it is a mere building. All this too is a sham. We do not need their generosity. Till now, we have managed it on our own, we can do that even now,” says Usha Devi, a farmer in Songal.
Some residents say they sent back the team to express their anger over the Narendra Modi government’s stand on the farmers’ agitation.
“If they do not support us, we too will not listen to them. If they support us in our fight, and the farm laws are repealed, we all will take the vaccination and will listen to whatever the government says,” says Sher Singh, a farmer in the same village.
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‘Covid is a figment of imagination’
In Pai a panchayat was held last month, where it was decided that no one will get tested. This was to ensure “mental peace” for villagers, they say.
“There was a panchayat, where it was decided that no one will get tested. This Covid is nothing but a figment of imagination. If a person gets tested, and the report says positive, that person will die of fear. Also, we do not trust this government. They may turn us positive just to keep us inside our homes,” says Ram Meher Singh, a farmer in Pai who also runs a shop.
After much convincing on the part of the authorities, Pai allowed the Covid care centre to come up outside the village earlier this month.
“We did not let them enter the village. We told them to make that centre of ‘negativity’ outside the village. There too, they have just put up beds and some mattresses but no one goes there as there is no help. These officials just want to show work on paper,” Ram Meher says.
‘Only the poor spread the virus?’
According to the villagers across Jind, Hisar and Kaithal, what triggered the boycott was Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s visit, along with his party members, to inaugurate a Covid facility in Hisar on 16 May.
The farmers in the area entered into a clash with police, in which dozens from both sides were injured. FIRs were registered against over 300 farmers and many were also detained.
“If Khattar breaks the lockdown by gathering 400 people, it is fine. The Home Minister (Amit Shah) and Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) can do a rally in Bengal, that is okay. Then there is no Corona. But if we step out to earn our living, we are hit by lathis, cases are registered against us,” says Manjeet Karora, a farmer in Songal.
“Now, we do not want anything from this government, because all of it is a sham,” he says. “Why should the poor suffer? Does corona only hit the poor, not the politicians?” he adds.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has even made a formal complaint to Haryana Police, seeking the registration of a formal case against Khattar.
“It is the CM who boycotted the lockdown. Why did he have to hold an inauguration with 400 people during the pandemic? It is him who should be booked for violation of Section 144 and the Disaster Management Act,” says Azad Pehelwan, BKU Zila Pradhan in Jind.
A senior police officer, however, said that the CM hadn’t come with 400 people, as claimed by the farmers. The officer said that FIRs were registered and farmers detained, because over 2,500 of them wanted to enter the Covid hospital after the CM had left, in protest.
“So many of them wanted to crash into the hospital and could have ransacked the facility. There was a clash, which is why the men were detained and FIRs registered,” the officer said.
This report has been updated to include a police officer’s comments.
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