The historic farm bills, passed by the Union government, have triggered renewed protests with farmers from Punjab making their way to the National Capital. While the ‘protest’ has been turning colourful day by day with ‘celebrity’ protestors and the usual ‘guests protestors’, the 83-year-old Shaheen Bagh ‘activist’ Bilkis Bano has now reached the protest site.
The Shaheen Bag Dadi, who was featured in the list of top 100 influential people of 2020 in Times Magazine, claimed, “We are daughters of farmers, we’ll go to support farmers’ protest today. We will raise our voice, the government should listen to us.” The latest entry of Bilkis Bano in the farmer agitation, coupled with the distribution of ‘free Biriyani’ and the vocal support of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has now brought back memories of the Shaheen Bagh protests, where Islamists sat on a so-called ‘protest’ beginning in December last year, against the Citizenship Amendment Act. They had blocked a major highway and had cause traffic disruptions for months.
We are daughters of farmers, we’ll go to support farmers’ protest today. We will raise our voice, the government should listen to us: Bilkis Dadi, Shaheen Bagh activist #Delhi pic.twitter.com/Cfo50IrVxP
— ANI (@ANI) December 1, 2020
In a viral video, the Dadi of Shaheen Bagh was seen talking to ‘farmers’ as she made her way to the protest site.
Finally! Famous Shaheen Bagh ki Dadi has reached as “Farmers’ protest”. Last time she had won prize after 51 deaths. Lets see what she is expecting now.
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) December 1, 2020
pic.twitter.com/ibDWZ2FdX6
Shaheen Bagh, Bilkis Bano and the implications of her participation in farmer protests
Bilkis Bano was one of the leading ‘protestors’ at Shaheen Bagh against the humanitarian Citizenship Amendment Act that sought to provide citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The sit-in protests, which centred around disruption of traffic and accentuating people’s owes in a bid to hold the government hostage, had eventually failed with the government refusing to budge to the demands of the Islamists. Shaheen Bagh, the mecca of anti-CAA protests, eventually bolstered the Islamists to go on a rampage in February this year, culminating into one of the worst anti-Hindu riots in recent history.
Women like Bilkis Bano were used as the shield while the sit-in protests fuelled anti-India sentiments, invited secessionist and separatist voices from all over India and provided cover for the radicalisation and mobilisation that eventually led to the Delhi Riots.
As per latest reports, Bilkis bano was escorted out by police from the Singhu border.
Biriyani feast at farmer agitation
As witnessed in Shaheen Bagh, it was earlier seen that Biryani was being served to ‘farmers’ camping in Ghazipur, Delhi.
Netizens were quick to draw equivalences between the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi border areas and the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh, which had turned out to be a professionally organised left-wing managed anti-India event. Reacting to the video, some social media users opined that the farmers’ protest was the season 2 of Shaheen Bagh protests.
AAP lends support to ‘organic’ farmer protests
Arvind Kejriwal and his party leaders have been busy extending support to protesting ‘farmers’ from Punjab. Earlier, a couple of videos have emerged of an elderly Sikh man threatening to teach a lesson to Prime Minister Narendra Modi just like ‘they taught Indira Gandhi’. Interestingly, these threatening statements were made in the presence of Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan. It is however interesting to note that his government in Delhi has already quietly notified one of the three farm laws their leaders are now opposing.
