golden palasyo Jagjit Singh Dallewal: Life On The Line For The Farmers' Cause

Fighting for the Farmers: An emaciated Jagjit Singh Dallewal at the protest site at Khanauri borderPhoto: | Courtesy: Sukh Pictures Fighting for the Farmers: An emaciated Jagjit Singh Dallewal at the protest site at Khanauri borderPhoto: | Courtesy: Sukh Pictures

A blue blanket with Phulkari print flowers covers the emaciating yet towering frame of 68-year-old farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who had been observing a fast-unto-death at Khanauri border for the past 54 days as of January 18. As concerns about his health mountedgolden palasyo, a Supreme Court bench asked the Punjab government to furnish a full set of comparative medical reports to help the court “to take opinion about the medical/health condition of Dallewal from the medical board that may be asked to be constituted by the Director of AIIMS, Delhi.”

At the Khanauri protest site, Dallewal, who is a cancer patient, is supported by an intravenous drip pumping nutrients into his body. He continues to give instructions to his followers in between bouts of painful retching. The convener of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) (non-political), announced the hunger strike on November 26, 2024 “to make the government hear” the demands of the farmers, which include legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers. “He is fighting for the farmers. He is standing up to the Modi sarkar for us,” says Suchha Singh, a 75-year-old farmer from Tarn Taran Sahib, who travelled 250 km to reach Khanauri . He is one of the 111 farmers who joined Dallewal’s hunger strike in solidarity on January 15, 2025. “How can we continue to eat and live comfortably while he is dying for us? So we decided to put our lives at stake too,” he says. Ten farmers from Haryana’s Hisar, Sonipat, Panipat and Jind districts also started a fast-unto-death on January 17 in support of Dallewal.

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The farmers at Khanauri wear placards that read: We will give our lives and become martyrs before Dallewal ji. “Even if we fall sick, we will not accept treatment unless the government talks to us and holds a dialogue with farmers,” 60-year-old Avtaar Singh from Fategarh Sahib says. “In the untoward incident of his death, he (Dallewal) has instructed us to not move his body from the protest site until the government relents,” Baldev Singh, Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta (Sidhupur) Bhatinda district president shares. “Our movement is a non-violent one and Dallewal ji is leading a satyagraha to pressurise the government to fulfil its promises to farmers.”

While the protests at Shambhu are being led by Sarwan Singh Pandher’s Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, the Khanauri protests are organised by the Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta (Sidhupur) and SKM (non-political), a breakaway faction of the larger umbrella body of SKM, which led the 2020-21 farmers protests. As Dallewal’s health deteriorates his followers—the hundreds of farmers who have been protesting in Khanauri, Shambhu and Ratanpura for nearly a year— are nevertheless losing patience. “We are all hoping and praying for Dallewal’s health. But if something happens to him, we won’t be able to control public sentiment and there is very real possibility of chaos and violence,” a senior SKM (non-political) leader said.

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Born on October 4, 1958, to a family of farmers in Dallewala village in Punjab’s Faridkot district, Dallewal holds a Masters’ degree in political science. “He was always interested in farming and pursuing issues faced by farmers,” his sister Jasveer Kaur, 66, says. Ever since he sat on his ‘aamaran ansan’, she has been camping outside his glass enclosure near the ‘stage’ area of the Khanauri protests. “How can I leave my brother alone here?” she asks, teary-eyed.

Despite securing a job as a superintendent inspector (SI) in the Punjab Police, Dallewal chose to become a full-time agriculturalist and for the last 44 years, he has been working as a member of the Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta (Sidhupur), to emancipate the farmers and workers community.

BKU Ekta (Sidhupur) was formed by Sardar Pishora Singh Sidhupur, who became its first president in 1994. The farmer leader deeply influenced Dallewal in his youth. After his death in 2017, Dallewal, who had risen from village to block level before becoming the group’s Faridkot district president—a position he held for 18 years—was elected as his successor as the group’s national president. Since then, he has worked hard to expand the group’s footprint. From being limited to eight-ten districts when he took over, the BKU Ekta (Sidhupur) now has a presence across every district of Punjab and is the second largest farmers union within the state.

Dallewal’s son Gurpinder Singh, who has been taking care of the homefront while his father has been away at Khanauri since last year, says that for Dallewal the farmers’ cause comes before his own family. In February 2018, he had led a tractor march to Delhi to demand the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations. In March, he joined Anna Hazare’s hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. Before this, Dallewal had demonstrated for 35 days in Punjab. In January 2019, he started a five-day hunger strike in Chandigarh and another in January 2021 when he became part of a chain hunger strike at the Delhi border as part of the larger farmers’ protest against the three contentious farm laws introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

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In November 2022, Dallewal launched another hunger strike following Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s comments against farmers’ unions. In June 2023, Dallewal undertook yet another hunger strike as he demonstrated outside the head office of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) in Patiala for fulfilment of 21 demands pertaining to water and electricity supply for farmers. The strike continued for nearly a week before the Punjab Police forcibly hospitalised him for treatment. The current hunger strike is his sixth and longest. Dallewal started the fast on November 26, 2024 to coincide with the anniversary of the farmers protest 2020 which began on November 26 as well.

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During the 2020-21 farmers’ movement, Dallewal was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy for four years. Despite that, he continued to actively protest—first against the farm laws and then for the implementation of MSP and other demands including waiving of loans for farmers and workers.

Some claim Dallewal has moved the BKU Ekta (Sidhupur) away from the leftist orientation of Pishora Sidhupur. His participation in the Anna Hazare movement add to such critiques. But a senior leader of the SKM (non-political) says that Dallewal was opposed to religious radicalism and resisted from commenting on Sikh radicalisation and the Khalistan debate. Dallewal says he has no interest in electoral politics (one of the reasons behind forming SKM (non political). Dallewal and his followers maintain that the hunger strike is “not a political stunt” and that Dallewal is on the path to ‘‘shahadat’’ (martyrdom).

“The seven lakh farmers who died by suicide in the few years due to the bad policies of the UPA or NDA government, their lives were more precious than my life. The lives of the orphaned children of those farmers are more essential than my life. It is essential to stop these farmer suicides,” Dallewal conveyed through his next-in-command Abhimanyu Kohar at the protest site in Khanauri. After announcing his plans to undertake the strike last November, Dallewal visited his home in Faridkot to draw up a will. “In his will, he transferred all his land to me, my wife and our son,” says Gurpinder. Dallewal’s daughter-in-law Harpreet Kaur calls him a feminist. “He gave me two acres of land and 10.5 acres to our son. In Punjab, where daughters-in-law are often seen as outsiders, this is a big deal,” she says.

Dallewal lost his wife on January 27, 2024, days ahead of the proposed date of startingthe protests. Undeterred, he addressed farmers at a Mahapanchayat in Haryana on February 3, where he said, “What is done is done, it’s god’s will. But the farmers fraternity is also my family and I want to dedicate all my energy to it,” Gurpinder recalls.

Back in Khanauri, the mood remains grim. Doctors attending to Dallewal on site say his medical reports indicate signs of starvation ketosis. Dallewal’s sister Jasveer Kaur warns, “If anything happens to Dallewal saab or any of the striking farmers here, the entire farmer community of Punjab will hold the government of India responsible.”

(This appeared in the print as 'The Farmer—Composing Antagonist')golden palasyo