People’s power: Government forced to release farmers’ leader not once but twice

Manjit Singh Dhaner says he is not surprised that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), mandated with probing terror cases across the country, has issued summons to farmers, shopkeepers, activists and journalists from Punjab and Haryana demanding revocation of the three new farm laws. The senior vice president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta) Dakaunda, says he has seen it all and more.

In 2019, Dhaner was pardoned for the second time by the Governor of Punjab after he was convicted in a 2001 “murder” case. Dhaner says it was a price he paid for cornering the state government then over the issues of women’s safety and law and order in Punjab.

In July 1997, a girl from Mehalkalan in Punjab was abducted, gang-raped and murdered by four men. She was the daughter of a differently-abled teacher. An outraged Dhaner launched a massive agitation in the Malwa belt of Punjab against this in which thousands of people participated. With the government feeling the heat, the four culprits were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case by the local court in 2001.

In March 2001, just months before the conviction, a squabble broke out between the accused persons’ supporters and the protestors in which an 82-year-old man got injured. He eventually died. The local police registered a complaint against Manjit Singh Dhaner who was leading the protests. Along with him, two other leaders were also booked.

Dhaner tells National Herald, “It was a false accusation slapped on us only because it was a very powerful movement. This is what is happening with these NIA cases also.”Narain Dutt, one of the leaders who was also booked along with Dhaner says, “Everyone knew that it was a politically motivated case, yet we were named. There was a huge uproar in Barnala district.”

Manjit, Dutt and one other person were convicted in the case by the local court in 2005.”That is when all the farm unions, student unions, peasant unions and others decided to come together and fight for our release,” recalls Dhaner. Thousands camped outside the jail for 47 days before they were released and later ‘pardoned’.

Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta) Dakaunda president Jagmohan Singh Patiala points out, “It was not just about their release, the protests were also against the state and its oppression. Slapping such cases are a way to tell protestors to fall in line.”

On July 24, 2007, Dhaner was pardoned by the Governor of Punjab after a massive wave of protests rocked the state. However, his pardon was challenged in the High Court which annulled it. The case went to the Supreme court but the apex court too upheld his life sentence.

In September 2019, when the SC delivered its verdict, another wave of protests erupted in Punjab. Thousands of people came on the streets and camped outside the Barnala Jail.” It was a massive protest, much like what you are seeing here right now,” says Dutt, referring to farmers protests happening at Delhi’s borders.

The Governor was once again forced to pardon Dhaneron November 13, 2019 and he was released just a day after. “This is what a revolution does,” says the farmers’ leader before adding, “When courts, administration and the police fail to see what is right, people are forced to come out on the street to seek justice.”