NAWANSHAHR: In no mood to relent till the farm laws are repealed, the youth wing of a prominent farmers’ organisation of Doaba and Malwa, Kirti Kisan Union (KKU), has now decided to invoke Banda Singh Bahadur, a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh, by organising as many as four farmers’ conferences on current farmers’ issues at Rahon (Nawanshahr) and Dina Sahib (Moga) on October 26 and at Gurdas Nangal (Gurdaspur) and Sirhind (Fatehgarh Sahib) on October 27 to mark his 350th birth day.
Banda Singh Bahaur whose birthday falls on October 27, was a Sikh warrior and commander of Khalsa army, who after assembling a fighting force had led the struggle against Mughal Empire. After establishing his authority and Khalsa rule in Punjab, he was the first to abolish the Zamindari system in Punjab. “Agitating farmers fear that the new farm laws will again usher in the era of Zamindari system in Punjab though in a new ‘avtar’ in the form of big corporates as new Zamindars, ” says farmers’ senior leader Surinder Bains of KKU.
“As it was Banda Singh Bahadur who had first ordered that the ownership of land be given to the tilling farmers to let them live in dignity and self-respect, our youth wing has decided to celebrate his birthday by organising conferences of farmers, esp the youth, where they will be asked to fight the new farm laws with all their might in order to save their land from falling back into the hands of new ‘Zamindars’ who have the alleged backing of Modi government, ” he reveals, adding that as “advocated by Banda Bahadur, a handful of new corporates will not be allowed to cow down the poor, marginal farmers”.
With regard to choice of the venues of these conferences, the union’s youth wing leader Kulwinder Chahal said all the four places are associated with Guru Gobind Singh and Banda Singh Bahadur. “While at Dina Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh penned the historic Zafarnamah which made Aurangzeb tremble with feelings of remote and regret of what he had done in his lifetime, at Rahon, among various battles fought with Mughals by Sikhs of Banda Bahadur, one fought there in October 1710 had resulted in the victory of Sikhs. “Similarly, we are thinking of winning this battle against Modi and his cohorts by invoking the Great Sikh Guru and his valiant Sikh general, ” he told this reporter. As regards the choice of remaining two venues of conferences, Banda Bahadur was captured by Mughals from a small fort in Gurdas Nangal in December 1715 after a long battle which extended upto eight months before his execution on June 9, 1710 in a brutal manner in Delhi. Sirhind is similarly known for a famous battle known as ‘Siege of Sirhind’ in 1710 which was fought between the Mughals and Sikh forces led by Banda Singh Bahadur.