When farmers did not flinch from a good fight

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Editor's note: The damp patch on the blanket is growing by the minute. Rain is falling steadily through the holes in the tarpaulin roof of Kartar Singh’s makeshift home. Each drop pricks the skin like a needle, its bite intensified by the crisp January breeze. Singh, his turban soaking wet with rain, is unfazed and simultaneously amused at my discomfort. He extends a cup of hot tea and shifts slightly to his right. On cue, five others huddled in the trolley shift, leaving me enough space to stay out of the rain. Singh then breaks into an easy smile. “We are used to the rain,” he says. “It doesn’t bother us. It is, in fact, a godsend. Now we don’t have to worry for at least another two weeks about watering our crops back home.”  The 45-year-old farmer from Ludhiana has been camping in his makeshift home for over a month now. He reckons there are almost 125,000 tractor-trolleys lined up at the Singhu border between Delhi and Haryana, on the GT Karnal Road. It is past 9 in the morning, but …