Taranjit Nimana pens a letter in blood to leaders at Singhu border.
Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 6
Revolutions can’t succeed without shedding blood, it is said. At Singhu, it’s being done literally!
For the 15th day on Wednesday, 48-year-old Taranjit Singh Nimana sits with a thin wooden straw in his hand; its tip soaked in red. He is penning a letter to the leaders of the country. On a nearby table lies 10 more letters — red on white — in Punjabi. But in place of ink, what he writes with is the blood of farmers!
Since December 20, the Bhai Ghanaiya Ji Mission Sewa Society, a Ludhiana-based NGO, has been penning letters in blood of farmers exhorting the top leaders of the country to withdraw the three farm laws. Everyday an array of blood-soaked letters are handed over to farm leaders. This blood is donated at the NGO’s blood donation camps being held behind the main stage of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha at the Singhu border.
The NGO, which has won the state award nine times for its contribution in the field on blood donation, is headed by its president Taranjit Singh Nimana. Nearly 1,000 farmers have donated blood across the 15 blood donation camps held so far. Letters have so far been sent to the Prime Minister, Home Minister, President, Vice President and the Chief Justice of India, but to no avail. Nimana now plans to send a letter written in his blood to the UNO on his birthday tomorrow (January 7) in honour of those, who died at the Delhi protests.
On his recent visit to the Singhu border, environmentalist Seechewal also called upon Nimana, his old acquaintance, after Seechewal’s speech on stage.
Such is the spirit that after a storm uprooted the backstage tent and damaged the mattresses and equipment at the camp, it has been shifted to a safer shed, where the camp resumed today.
Nimana, says: “Ehnan chitthiyan vich kisanan da khoon raleya hai. Asi bhejde rahange jad tak kale kanoon vapas nahi hunde. Singhan de hausle chikkar vich vi buland ne. (These letters are soaked in farmers’ blood. We will keep writing these until the black laws are withdrawn. Singhs are full of courage even in mud).”
Nimana adds: “We sent back doctors yesterday. Our backstage tent lost its roof. It was very windy and the tent ended up dripping in rain. We resumed at another place today. It’s my birthday on January 7. In memory of lives lost at Singhu, I shall donate blood and write in blood to the UNO to get the laws withdrawn.” Blood collected from the camp has been donated to blood banks at Ludhiana, Patiala and now to UP, Delhi and Haryana (Faridabad, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Delhi (Mayur Vihar).
“While there is already a blood shortage during the pandemic, we would want the blood to be used for any emergency case. Anyone who needs blood is free to take it from us,” Nimana says. While Nimana planned to send blood-soaked letters to the PM from Ludhiana, he shifted to Singhu border when the idea was discussed with morcha leaders, who asked the NGO to shift base to Singhu.