Kabaddi tournament lifts spirits amid rains; farmers vow to burn copies of laws on Lohri

New Delhi: As the winter showers are starting to take a toll on the lakhs of protesting farmers at the Capital's gates, 12 women's kabaddi teams arrived at the Singhu border and held a tournament despite the cold downpour with

Sukhwinder Singh (55) of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee Punjab, saying the women came forward voluntarily to participate in the tournament to keep protesters engaged.

"Teams from different states have come forward and asked us that they want to organise a kabaddi tournament. We have planned different activities for each day to keep people engaged at Singhu border," he said.

The winning team will get Rs 2,100 and the runner up Rs 1,100. The prize has been announced by people who have donated the amount, Sukhwinder said.

On Sunday morning, heavy rains lashed parts of the national capital leading to waterlogging at various places and also affecting the protest sites. However, the tournament was not affected by the rains.

Jagbir Singh from Jind district of Haryana and head coach at the tournament said the majority of players are college students.

"The teams from Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi have participated in the tournament. We all have come here to support the farmers. The tournament will be concluded today only. There are also some national and international players," he said.

The farmers, who have been camping at the site, cheered for the players as the tournament was on.

"I have played at the state as well the national level from Delhi. The match was good though we could not win it and made to another round. My family was very supportive and they allowed me play the match here," Ritika Dalal, one of the players, said.

The matches were being played on a temporary

turf.

Narender Kumar, a kabaddi coach from Rohtak, said that he received a message regarding the tournament on WhatsApp.

"I received a message on WhatsApp yesterday regarding the matches. It was mentioned that the only girls will play, following which I took my team of 10 girls, including my twin daughters, and reached here this morning. It is a knockout tournament and you have to win each and every match. My team lost by two points but they performed really well," Kumar said.

Meanwhile, farmer leaders at the Singhu border on Sunday vowed to burn copies of the contentious legislation to mark Lohri, which is on January 13 this year and added that they will observe the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as "Azad Hind Kisan Diwas".

"We will celebrate the Lohri festival on January 13 by burning the copies of farm laws, farmers' leader Manjeet Singh Rai said.

Rai also urged people to hold protests in support of farmers across India from January 6

to 20.

Lohri is mostly celebrated in north India, marking the beginning of the spring season. Bonfires are a special characteristic of the festival

Another farmers' leader Onkar Singh said, Today is the 37th day of our protest. The government should leave its stubbornness. In these conditions, the farmers, including elders, have been sitting on protest, but the government is not concerned about it.

Braving the cold, thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at various borders of the national capital for more than a month against the three farm laws.

The farmers' leaders said they are ready for Monday's meeting with the government.

The next round of talks between the government and protesting farmer unions is scheduled to be held on January 4, Monday.