TRAGIC DEMISE OF A REVOLUTIONARY PEASANT LEADER

Lok Morcha Punjab expresses its deep grief and anguish at the tragic and untimely death of Sh. Balkar Singh Dakonda and his wife in a road accident on the night intervening 12th & 13th July 2010. Sh. Balkar Singh remained active in the farmers movement in Punjab for the last about 28 years. In the eighties, when Punjab farmers organized a massive spectacular Gherao of Punjab Raj Bhawan at Chandigarh, he was Nabha block President of the BKU. With the sheer dint of his hard work, commitment and dedication to the cause of farmers, he emerged as a front-ranking leader of the BKU. For the past many years, Sh. Balkar Singh Dakonda remained part of a united revolutionary democratic movement of farmers and agricultural laborers fervently struggling against the neo-liberal policies of the ruling classes in Punjab.

While fighting for the farmers he suffered immense repression at the hands of the police. He was sent to jail six times, the last one being in March 2010. A few years ago he suffered injuries on his head and knee in a brutal lathi-charge by the police at Mansa, on a peaceful demonstration of peasants.

Sh. Balkar Singh Dakonda was deeply interested in progressive literature & cultural activities, particularly the poetry of Surjit Paatar and plays of Sh. Gursharan Singh. He used to organize Gursharan Singh’s plays in and around his village and recite Surjit Paatar’s poems to enthuse the peasants in their gatherings.

Balkar Singh Dakonda’s death is a great loss to the peoples’ democratic revolutionary movement.