Updated: November 27, 2020 5:13:05 am
Farmers protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border in Shambhu, Patiala, on Thursday. Harmeet Sodhi
When thousands of farmers from Haryana and Punjab took over the national and state roads leading to Delhi on Thursday, Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Rajnath Singh called for calm and invited them to talk.
After defying water cannons and lathis, and putting barricades aside, protesters in the march against the three new central farm laws were camping overnight on the roads.
A large group of farmers, mainly from Haryana, were at the Panipat tollgate, about 65 km from the Delhi border on the Delhi-Ambala highway; Another group of farmers mainly from Punjab was camping in Karnal, 100 km from the Delhi border on the same road.
A third, smaller group was traveling along the Delhi-Sirsa highway and had reached Hansi in the Hisar district, some 115 km from the border with Delhi. Swaraj India President Yogendra Yadav was detained in the Gurgaon village of Bilaspur while leading a group of protesters on the Delhi-Jaipur highway.
As they converge on Delhi from multiple directions, farmers are prepared for the long haul. Their tractor wagons are loaded with rations and bedding. They are also in trucks, buses and jeeps; many also march on foot.
In the afternoon, the agriculture minister, Tomar, sent conciliatory signals to the protesters, telling some reporters that the government was ready to talk about “issues and resolve differences” with them.
“I want to appeal to our fellow farmers not to get agitated,” Tomar said. “I am sure that our dialogue will have a positive result.”
Read | No one can stop us, thousands say on the borders of the capital
In the evening, Rajnath Singh said that he himself was the son of a farmer and that the government could not “betray” the farmers.
“I am calling on you to stop your protests, I invite you to the discussions,” Singh said at the HT Leadership Summit. “I am the Minister of Defense, but as the son of a farmer, as a farmer, I want to invite you. I am ready to talk to them. We cannot betray the farmers. “
Both Tomar and Singh tried to persuade farmers that the new laws would benefit them and that fears about the end of the minimum support price (MSP) regime and the mandi system were unfounded.
Throughout the day, multi-layered barricades comprising iron barriers, giant concrete blocks and concertina wire placed at various locations on multiple state and national highways by Haryana police failed to stop farmers on their march from Delhi Chalo to force the Center to discard the three agricultural laws and obtain a legal guarantee of continuation of the MSP system.
Haryana police used tear gas and water cannons and carried out baton charges, but were unable to stop the protesters. The police have taken more than 90 peasant leaders into preventive custody in the last two days.
The situation was volatile in the Fatehabad, Jind, Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak and Ambala districts of Haryana. The police received stones in several places. There were reports of clashes between the police and protesters in Ambala, Jind, Fatehabad and Karnal. Government and private vehicles were damaged in Jind and Ambala when farmers clashed with police at the Shambhu barrier.
Neither the statement of Tomar in Delhi nor the various attempts of the Haryana government succeeded in pacifying the agitated farmers. In the afternoon, farmers’ organizations turned their backs on scheduled talks with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
“The Chief Minister had invited the leaders of the farmers’ unions to talk. They had agreed, but some hooligans prevailed over others, and the unions did not come for the talks, ”said Haryana Interior Minister Anil Vij. He said district administrations were still trying to negotiate with farmers’ unions to avoid disruptions and prevent large crowds from gathering amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
As farmers continued to break through police barricades, Khattar entered into a war of words with his Punjab counterpart, Captain Amarinder Singh. Both leaders posted a series of tweets against each other, with Amarinder asking Khattar not to use force against the farmers and the Haryana CM accusing him of instigating the protesters.
Non-BJP leaders in both Haryana and Punjab have extended their support to agitated farmers. Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called peaceful protest his “constitutional right”, and criticized Haryana and the Center for using force against them. As farmers arrive in Delhi on Friday, most are expected to try to enter the capital via the Kundli border.
On Thursday evening, Haryana Police advised people to avoid entry points to Delhi from Haryana on NH 10 (Hisar-Rohtak-Delhi) and NH 44 (Ambala-Panipat-Delhi). DGP Manoj Yadava warned the general public about the inconveniences on the roads to Delhi, especially on the sections between Panipat and Karnal, Karnal and Kurukshetra, and Kurukshetra and Ambala.
“Our field units tried to prevent farmers coming from Punjab from entering Haryana in a restricted way … But the farmers not only damaged the police barricades, they proceeded to remove all blockages and obstructions. The police did not use force, but the peasants tried to disrupt law and order by throwing stones at the police in many places, ”said DGP.
The Center has invited farmers to a second round of discussions at the ministerial level on December 3. An earlier round of talks between the government and representatives of the agricultural unions on November 13 had not been conclusive.
Amid the protests, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Thursday that the purchase of rice during the current kharif marketing season continued “without problems”.
“Rice procurement for Kharif 2020-21 continues smoothly in the Contracting and UT States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra with the purchase of more than 307.03 LMT (lakh metric tons) of rice until 25.11.2020 compared to last year’s corresponding purchase of 259.41 LMT, which shows an increase of 18.35% over the last year, ”the Ministry said in a statement.
“Out of the total purchase of 307.03 LMT, Punjab has only contributed 202.53 LMT, which is 65.96% of the total acquisition,” he said.
Food Ministry data accessed by The Indian Express shows that around 202 LMT of rice were purchased in Punjab during the last two months of the kharif shopping season, from September 26 to Wednesday.
This is 20 percent higher than the target of 168.66 LMT for the current season and higher than the 161 LMT of rice with rice purchased in the corresponding period last year.
Acquisitions at Haryana have been minor. Since the start of the acquisition on September 26, around 55 lakh tonnes of rice had been purchased in Haryana as of November 25, which is less than the 63 lakh tonnes purchased in the corresponding period of 2019.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
.
