Thread by @PSainath_org

1/7. Bhagat Singh Jhuggian, 93, is one of India’s last living freedom fighters. Expelled from school, an official circular called him ‘dangerous’ and a ‘revolutionary’ – at age 11! He became a courier for the radical underground. Story link at end of thread.
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2/7. His reaction to being thrashed and thrown out of Government Elementary School, Samundra in Hoshiarpur, Punjab was: ‘Now I’m free to join the anti-British struggle.’ He did. By the time he was 16, the police were more scared of him than he was of them.
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3/7. This foot-soldier of freedom fought for humanity during Partition which for him was the saddest year ever. He often risked his life to save innocents from frenzied communal mobs. Post-I947 he fought for farmers and workers and still does – at age 93.
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4/7. The Pratap Singh Kairon government jailed him for his role in the 1959 struggle against unjust taxes imposed on farmers. They seized and auctioned his buffalo and fodder chopping machine. But a neighbour bought both for Rs. 11 and returned them to him.
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5/7. He was a prime target of Khalistani terrorists between 1984 and 1993. At least one attempt on his life failed because one of the extremists recognised him as a fine human being and refused to kill him. The hit squad turned back 400 metres from his house.
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6/7. Even today, jathas going from his tehsil to join the farmers’ protests on Delhi’s borders go first to his home to get his blessings. And he is raising resources for the protesting farmers camped at Shahjahanpur. Full story on PARI in 13 languages.
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7/7. Bhagat Singh Jhuggian is worried about the independence and freedom of the nation that he fought for. Because, he says, those now running the country participated in neither. But, he believes, “the sun will set on this Raj, too.”
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ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/bh…