Considering the meticulous and methodical preparations that went into making the farmers protests count, Puntamba village’s moment of glory appears well deserved
Puntamba, Maharashtra: Sarjerao Jadhav, a farmer in Puntamba village of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, remembers the day when a special gram sabha (village panchayat assembly) passed the resolution saying farmers would go on strike from 1 June.
“On 3 April, when we moved this resolution, we thought we would begin with some 10 villages near Puntamba and the strike would take at least one year to make an impact. We had no idea the strike would achieve nearly 80% of its goals in three months only,” Jadhav says.
A day after the Maharashtra government declared a total farm loan waiver with certain riders, Puntamba wears a festive look. Jadhav and his fellow members of the Kisan Kranti Core Committee walk in a celebratory procession through the village. The procession culminates in an informal gathering at the very village panchayat hall where the gram sabha adopted the resolution. Sarjerao Jadhav, articulate and active, is justified in feeling a bit surprised by the relatively swift and arguably historic response to the Puntamba strike call when dozens of farmer protests before had made little impact on the government. But considering the meticulous and methodical preparations that went into making this one unique protest count, Puntamba’s moment of glory does appear well-deserved.
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