Farmers Protest - In Their Own Voice

An integral part of the farmers protest is anger with the media, with reporters from the defamed channels being surrounded at Delhi’s borders and told to go back. Polite but firm, no abuse, no physical attack just a -- Sorry, we do not have any confidence in you, we do not trust you, we will not speak with you. Although this has been heard at other protests as well across the country, the farmers have now gone a step further to start their own Kisan Ekta Morcha Youtube channel. Large scale mobilisation with invitations to subscribe landing in people’s inboxes has taken the subscriptions to 1.17 million subscribers in a matter of days. And as it says, it is the official Youtube channel for all “the updates about the farmers protests.”

The result is that every journalist worth his or her salt, workers, kisans, academics, lawyers, government officials interested in following the protests are relying on Kisan Ekta Morcha for the latest and most authentic news on the protests. There is a lot going on at the protest sites, including a webinar (see a video below), speeches, slogans, songs, cultural events in the new ‘townships’ that have sprung on Delhi’s borders. A music industry is churning out videos on the protests. More and more farmers are joining now from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra with the numbers increasing, and despite the passage of time and the increasing cold certainly not decreasing.

Below is a compilation of videos from the Youtube channel and social media that sum up the mood and the arguments of the intelligent, well informed, indomitable peasants of India in verse and prose: