Chhavi Bhatia

Tikri—A pall of gloom descended at Tikri border on Sunday when a 55-year-old farmer died by suicide. Karanveer Singhwal from Narwana, Haryana was found hanging from a tree at the protest site where lakhs of farmers have been holding a peaceful sit-in for almost three months now against the new farm laws. More than 200 farmers participating in the agitation have lost their lives to various causes like hypothermia, heart attack, road accidents and suicide since it started in November.

Singhwal had been camping at the border since November 26 when hundreds of thousands of farmers dug in their heels at various Delhi borders. A marginal farmer, Singhwal owns only two acres of land. He leaves behind his wife and three daughters, one of whom is married. In his suicide note, the farmer expressed his disappointment with the government’s indifference towards their plight and disinterest in repealing the laws. Dejected at the current state of affairs, the deceased, however, tried to boost his fellow comrades’ morale even in his last moment as he urged them to give a spirited fight and not leave till the laws are rolled back. “Bharatiya Kisan Union Zindabad. We have no idea how long will this struggle go on before the government revokes these black laws…We will not move from here till these black laws are repealed…Inquilab Zindabad,” read the suicide note.

The mood remained sombre at Tikri border as farmers held a mourning assembly for Singhwal. Young and old tried to console each other even as they struggled to hold back their emotions. In few poignant moments, youths held hands of their elderly, encouraging them that the fight is not theirs alone. “It is extremely painful to have lost someone who was fighting for his right. The government should understand that all of us are worried about our future. Why is it behaving so inhumanly,” asked Rajinder Malik, a farmer from Bhiwani. Grieving the loss of a fellow ‘warrior’, the farmers also pledged that they will honour his last wish. “So many of them who have either taken their lives or died otherwise had only one wish—to take this movement to its logical end. We will not go back till the laws are scrapped. These sacrifices won’t go in vain,” Dharampal, another farmer from Tohana said.

Doctors camping at Tikri and Singhu border have expressed their concern about the mental health of farmers who have been protesting, saying they are in a sensitive emotional and mental state. They have attributed it to high stress levels, insecurity of future and fear of their movement going on endlessly. “Behind the smiling and chardi kalan faces we see at the protest site lies a soul that is grappling to make sense of everything. He is constantly dreading losing his land, this battle. It is just not easy being here and fighting without getting affected,” says Dr Swaiman Singh. “We try to cheer them up whenever they come to us for treatment or when we go meet them. Their spirits must be kept high. So we encourage them to talk,” he further says.