Braving water cannons, tear gas and winter chill, as thousands of farmers moved towards the national capital as part of their “Dilli Chalo” protest against the Centre’s new farm laws, a dhaba along the highway came forward to help them.
The famous Amrik Sukhdev dhaba in Haryana’s Murthal opened its doors to the protesting farmers and oragnised a langar sewa for them for three days. The kind gesture won many hearts on social media with people praised the dhaba owners and management for coming to the aid of protesting farmers.
Video of the farmers having a meal at the famous food joint is widely being shared online. It garnered a lot of attention online after the Youth Wing of the Indian National Congress shared a clip of the dhaba located on the Ambala-Delhi national highway on its social media handles.
A spokesperson for the dhaba said it was nothing out of the ordinary and was part of the Sikh faith they believe in. “In Sikh community we believe in sewa more than anything else, so, when we saw so many people stranded it was only right that we offer them food. It was more feeding all, that attitude that made us do it,” he told IndianExpress.com over the telephone.
Asked if they would continue the langar, the spokesperson added: “Whenever there is such a need we will continue to open our doors for them.”
Refusing to comment on the number of people the dhaba fed on Friday, he added: “When doing sewa we don’t count the number of plates being served as it’s unnecessary. It’s about serving God through feeding people and ultimately about humanity.”
Amrik Sukhdev was not the only one to organise a langar for the farmers. Khalsa Aid India volunteers too offered free food the protesting farmers along the highway near the border.
Our @khalsaaid_india team serving Langar to the protesting #Farmers on the #Shambu border today !!
We stand with our farmers ! #FarmersDilliChalo pic.twitter.com/y4JEigSFKz
— Khalsa Aid (@Khalsa_Aid) November 26, 2020
The gesture was appreciated by many online, including celebrities.
Singh is King 👉
Amrik Sukhdev Dhaba in Haryana’s Murthal serves Free Food to #Farmers #FarmersProtest #IamWithFarmerspic.twitter.com/09ZT6ENLWJ— Aarti (@aartic02) November 28, 2020
This is MY INDIA!
Salute.
Dhaba Amrik Sukhdev in Delhi Haryana border Murthal serves free food to farmers.https://t.co/BSrC5lDFay @LambaAlka @diljitdosanjh @gurdasmaan pic.twitter.com/EnHs5YlvF2— Manoj Lubana (mouji) (@LubanaManoj) November 27, 2020
Video from Pam Atwal
Sukhdev Dhaba serving free food today 😋 for protesting farmers
# Punjabi spirit Zindabaad## Farmers protest Zindabaad pic.twitter.com/9D0nlHPoDn— Pam Atwal (@atwalatwal) November 27, 2020
#LANGAR by Amrik Sukhdev for farmers going on protest.
They never fail to win our hearts.#amriksukhdev pic.twitter.com/oA9OPHhssc— Dr. Kanwarpal Singh Selhi (@kpsselhi) November 27, 2020
Big service is being done by Sukhdev Dhaba Murthal by offering free langar for farmers, laborers who are traveling to Delhi.. May Guru Maharaj bless you with success.
— 𝕭𝖆𝖏𝖜𝖆🦅 (@SharanBajwa10) November 27, 2020
Fascist Govt
Hail humanity
The famous Amrik Sukhdev Dhaba in Haryana’s Murthal served free food to protesting farmers. The owner of the dhaba said farmers are the biggest providers and that they will not face any shortage of food during their protest.Well Done Sir pic.twitter.com/Nkax3sixbo
— Vaswani Manoj (@manojvam64) November 27, 2020
Awesome! Farmers are the backbone of our nation 💯 I stand for farmers.
— Flitzer (@Ruheimmer) November 27, 2020
They know the value of farmers ❤🤎
— Ugly Hero (@meet_patir) November 28, 2020
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After heavy deployment of forces at the borders, the Delhi Police allowed the farmers to enter the capital for their “peaceful protest” and were escorted by police personnel to north Delhi’s Nirankari Ground. However, they refused to go there and asked government to change protest site to Jantar Mantar. BKU Ugrahan — the largest farmers’ union in Punjab said that they will not go to Nirankari Park in Burari but will sit on the outskirts of Delhi till the time permission for doing protest at Jantar Mantar is not given.
The permission was granted by the Delhi Police after several rounds of discussion with farmer leaders and also after the AAP-ruled Delhi government rejected their request for allowing them to use nine stadiums as temporary jails to detain the farmers.
Sending conciliatory signals to the protesting farmers for the second time in as many days, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar invited them for talks on December 3. Farmers want the Centre to either withdraw the three legislations or guarantee them the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops by introducing a new law.