Avtar Singh Nagla, a Punjabi politician-farmer who perched himself atop a tall eucalyptus tree exactly 30 days ago, demanding restoration of land acquired from local villagers, including his own grandfather’s land over four decades back, is finally back on the ground.
Sick and considerably weak because he had also stopped eating as part of his tree-top dharna, Mr Nagla was helped down by Mohali district officials after he consented to climb down without his primary condition — that CM Parkash Singh Badal come and assure him in person – being met. Although, through most of his time on the eucalyptus tree villagers and well-wishers had kept the protester generously supplied with his favourite foods, dry fruits and bottles of mineral water that he would hoist up using a rope and pulley arrangement. He even kept the press entertained with daily broadcasts using a megaphone or live interviews via his mobile telephone.
But back on firmament, the barely audible politician, who had built up quite a following amidst the residents of Nagla and surrounding villages with his rather high altitude satyagraha, had to be rushed to hospital for a thorough medical including the replenishment of his severely dehydrated body after being exposed to the elements for a whole month.
While the state administration has assured (in writing) Mr Nagla that his grievance would be seriously looked into, the one truly relieved individual at the end of the long dharna was his wife Jaswinder Kaur. She said, “The Guru be thanked that my husband has come down. He has always been a stubborn man and would have carried on if he hadn’t become so sick.”
Mr Nagla, who contested the 2007 Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections but lost rather miserably, wants the government to return the land it acquired from the villagers for a paper mill in 1971. “Instead of building the mill and creating jobs for villagers, the land was resold at huge profit to property developers,” he claimed.