Noida Gate or Gateway to Noida on the Noida Delhi carriageway at Chilla border, the metallic gate made of multiple inverted arches in blue and white, welcomes people to Noida, in the presence of Gautam Buddha. The white marble statue of Buddha sitting in padamasna with his hands in ‘Dharmachakra mudra’ is placed in the middle of the road, next to the gate.
This is also the site of the protest by farmers. They have
been here since the beginning of December. One side traffic leading to Delhi
has been blocked. When the chief of Bhartiya Kisan Union, BKU (Bhanu) met
Rajnath Singh and declared that they will open the traffic his union saw open rebellion
and nearly 400 members resigned. His son Yogesh refused to comply to his orders
and went on an indefinite hunger strike. When I drove to the location the
traffic on this side was open, the number of protestors having reduced
significantly after the split in the union. Police outnumbered the protestors
by 2 to 1.
Rajwinder Singh, a farmer from close to Lukhnow, said that
they have more farmers on the way and they will block the road again the next
day. By next evening they had sufficient
numbers to do that. The morning after that I visited again. The police
barricading started nearly ten kilometers away on the expressway. Any vehicle
which looked like carrying farmers was being stopped and checked. Traffic was
diverted about a kilometer ahead of the Chilla border. Few police officers were
considerate and let me go through at the mention of ‘langar.’
Yogesh, the UP unit chief of BKU Bhanu, in his fifth day of
hunger strike looks cheerful as he stands amidst a group of fellow farmers. He greets
me with a big smile. His health is fine for now (doctors have been checking on
him regularly, ready to do their duty in case situation demands). He is
positive that the farmer demands are genuine and that they will not leave till
these laws are repealed. On why the number of farmers is so low here he says
that UP administration has made it very difficult for farmers to reach here. Their
tractor trolleys are being confiscated. All their village and block level
leaders are literally under house arrests. One of the local leaders who reached
says that the local police officer at his block has been suspended after he
managed to evade their surveillance and reach the protests.
There is another union camping nearby at Dalit Prerna Sthal.
For now, this group is holding onto one side of the road with whatever limited numbers
they have. Unlike other protest sites there are no stages or speeches here. There
are no big langars here either, they have a makeshift chulha on pedestrian
walkway acting as their kitchen.
I check with the local gurudwara. They say that they
supported the protestors initially, but since their leader joined the govt side
even the gurudwara team felt a bit betrayed and stopped sending help. Now that
these guys are showing some conviction again the team feels they will start
their help again. Even the gurudwara management has been advised (unofficially
of course) to not support the protestors but they do it without making it too
obvious.
“Dharmachakra in Sanskrit means the 'Wheel of Dharma'. This
mudra symbolizes one of the most important moments in the life of Buddha, the occasion
when he preached to his companions the first sermon after his Enlightenment. It
thus denotes the setting into motion of the Wheel of the teaching of the
Dharma.”
As this paltry group of farmers, a part of a larger farmers
movement, sit facing the Buddha and his Dharmachakra, they have set in motion their
very own wheel of Dharma.
#KisanEktaMorcha
#StandWithFarmers
#SpeakUpForFarmers
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