Kolkata : A local club of north Kolkata is celebrating Navratri by felicitating farmers and honoring the struggle of farmers protesting against the farm laws for nearly a year. Art installations at the pandal portray the extremity of the farmers while sharply criticizing the violence in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri that left eight dead, including four farmers.
The puja committee stated they wished to spotlight the exploitation of farmers by means of their pandal
On the entrance of the Dumdum Park Bharat Chakra pandal is a huge reproduction of a tractor utilized by farmers to until the land. A graffiti of a automobile and a farmer mendacity on its path adorn the sidewalk with a line in Bengali that reads “Motorgari uray dhulo, area of interest pore chashigulo (Whereas automobiles velocity away elevating a storm of mud, farmers come beneath their wheels)”.
Lots of of sandals on the bottom symbolise the scenes from an agitation the place protesters lose their sneakers in stampedes attributable to police motion. The principle pandal has been embellished with paddy hanging from the roof.
Artist Anirban Das, who conceptualized the theme, told news agency PTI that the names of farmers who died in the course of the agitation have been written in chits of paper on the giant tractor which also has large wings. “The wings symbolise their wishes of being free from the bondage,” he explained.
Another poster at the pandal in English reads, “We are farmers, not terrorists. Farmers are food soldiers.”
The puja committee’s secretary Pratik Choudhury said they wanted to highlight the exploitation of farmers.
“From the days of Tebhaga movement in 1946-47 to the recent agitation against the three pro-corporate farm bills, we have sought to narrate the story of the farmers who provide the food to us,” he said.
“The latest incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri the place 4 farmers have been knocked down by a car and killed throughout a protest occurred when our pandal was virtually prepared. However, we included it,” Mr Choudhury added.
Farmers within the nation have been protesting for practically a 12 months towards three legal guidelines, which they are saying would profit the large corporates. The federal government defends them, stating that reforms are wanted for the sector. A number of folks have misplaced their lives in the course of the course of the agitation.
Durga Puja pandals in Kolkata have at all times depicted the present socio-economic and political points. Final 12 months, the Barisha Membership in south Kolkata had erected a pandal on the migrants’ disaster amid the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown.
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