How farmers are reclaiming their narrative through social media
New Delhi: While people protesting against the Central government often have to bear the brunt of trolls and certain media outlets twisting their narrative, the farmers blocking Delhi's gates have kept up their movement throughout the last 11 days through social media mobilisation on channels like WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram — amplifying their voices and helping it reach far and wide.
At the Tikri border near Haryana, where the dharna has now stretched up to around 10 kms, both the young and the old can be seen clicking pictures and shooting videos on Facebook of speeches being made and slogans being raised by their leaders on podiums.
One of them is Maninder Singh, a farmer hailing from Fatehabad in Haryana, who said Twitter has helped him mobilise several supporters. "I use hashtags with keywords like #farmerprotest and #kisanektazindabad so that people see and retweet it and become aware of our demands," he said. "I also keep updating my WhatsApp status with updates like timings for meetings or other congregations," Singh said, adding that he manages to get around 150 views on his posts.
Added Singh, "Whenever we see a suspicious person entering our protest, we quickly go live on our personal Facebook handles and inform our fellow farmers to beware of these people."
Echoing the same sentiments, Bhupinder Singh, also hailing from Fatehabad, said that several WhatsApp groups have been formed where farmers share interviews from local channels and pictures of them at protest sites. "There is also a lot of propaganda and fake news going around about us which we try to counter through rigorous tweets, Instagram stories and Facebook live sessions."
Rajwinder, hailing from Faridkot in Punjab, said, "We keep switching positions so when around 20 people spend some days protesting here, we send our relatives back home a message on WhatsApp and several of them arrive from across the border in trucks and we subsequently go back to our villages."
"Our elders that are part of the protest are not so well versed with technology which is why we train them to use these online platforms and they are gradually getting used to it," Rajwinder said.
Meanwhile, Kamalpreet, from Moga district in Punjab, said that social media tools have helped them drum up support from across countries. "The videos and clips we share online have a global connect and our brothers based in countries like Canada and New Zealand show solidarity in their own way by organising protesters there," he said, adding that another WhatsApp group called "Lok Insaf" comprising farmers from Punjab and Haryana is in the works.
Scrolling through a WhatsApp group called "Dharna Farmers", Karamjit Singh, from Longodeva in Punjab, showed several photos, interviews and solidarity messages being uploaded by the members on a minute-to-minute basis. "It is because of social media and an online presence that we have been able to make ourselves heard," he said.
Meanwhile, there are also several instances of people video-calling their relatives across states to show them the protest sites. "I was showing the activities here to my family back in Moga who couldn't be here," a farmer said.
