Read: How Sons of Soil are utilizing virtual world for carrying protest against farm bills
Harvinder Kaur
Chandigarh, January 11, 2021: Farmers and their deep bond to the soil is something that has been widely celebrated in literature, songs, plays, and movies from times immemorial.
A 1953 Hindi movie ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ is among many films that portrayed farmers’ intimate connection with their land.
Where the recent amendments in the government’s policy have distanced farmers from the land and pushed them to hold dharna in Delhi borders amid the intense weather, it has made them explore other avenues.
Various farmers groups are effectively making use of social media platforms to make their voices known to the masses. While the deadlock continues between the central government and farmers over three farm bills, the farmer unions have made a good presence on the internet.
One such farmer union that has been extensively making use of the virtual platform is Kisan Ekta Morcha. “This is the Official Twitter Account to Get All the Exclusive Updates about Kisan Protest,” reads the Twitter page of Kisan Ekta Morcha having 135.2k followers.
Last week, the IT cell of the union has announced they will be releasing a hashtag centered on Kisan agitation every morning at 7 am.
“Let’s use it, share it & viral it so that our farmers' voices reach the government and actions are taken further,” the Kisan Ekta Morcha has urged the social media users.
Pertinently, several hashtags started by Kisan Ekta Morcha and farmers unions on the social media centered on ongoing farmers’ agitation has received immense support from people.
On Sunday, the Kisan Ekta Morcha made to call on Twitter to trend the hashtag #FarmerSuicideModiQuiet.
The call for the trend was given by farmer leaders a day after Darshan Singh; a 41-year-old debt-ridden farmer allegedly killed himself by consuming poison.
The hashtag on farmers got widely shared by the supporters of farmers’ agitation. By 10 am, the trend started by the farmers’ union was trending in 3rd place on Twitter.
While supporting the trend that directly targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, many social media users took a dig at the BJP government and Modi for having failed to resolve the farmers’ issue.
Take a look at social media users who expressed support for farmers’ agitation on Sunday:
On Monday, the Kisan Ekta Morcha released #FarmersDemandJustice and urged users to share and support it.
Likewise, Kisan Ekta Morcha, there are manyt other groups that are fighting for the farmers' right on the internet.
Last week, a Gurmukhi hashtag #ਜਾਂ_ਮਰਾਂਗੇ_ਜਾਂ_ਜਿੱਤਾਂਗੇ, started by Tractor2Twitter, another Twitter handle active in support of farmers protest was trending No.1 in India. It has been claimed that for the first time any Gurmukhi hashtag has achieved this milestone.
Tractor2Twitter presently has the 30.3K following.
