Farmers protest: After a restless Friday, it was a calmer Saturday.
New Delhi / Chandigarh:
Thousands of farmers hot on the heels of Delhi’s border points, their numbers increasing throughout the day as many more joined them, and hundreds gathered on the city’s Burari grounds on Saturday, disparate but united in their determination to protest against the new farm laws.
After an uneasy Friday in which police used tear gas shells, water cannons and multi-layered barriers to block protesters and some farmers threw stones and broke through barricades in their determination to move forward as part of their ‘Delhi march Chalo ‘, it was a calmer day. Saturday.
But the tension lingered with restless crowds milling around the city limits and beyond and settling in after another night in the cold.
Although there was no clear roadmap, the farmers, belonging to multiple groups, including 30 from Punjab, seemed clear in their resolve, some saying they would not disperse until the laws were repealed and others that they would ensure their voices were heard. They were mostly from Punjab and Haryana, but also from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
At the Singhu and Tikri borders, thousands of farmers in trucks, tractors and other vehicles who had braved the water cannons and truncheons and had been there for three days, refused to budge. When police personnel invaded the area, many said they would not go to the Sant Nirankari plot in Burari that was offered to them for peaceful protests.
Settling in for another night on the road, some said they would await the outcome of a crucial meeting on Sunday to decide the next course of action.
“Tomorrow there will be another meeting at 11 am. Until then, we are in Singhu,” said Baljeet Singh Mahal, chairman of the Jalandhar unit of Bhartiya Kisan Union Kadia.
“We have not yet decided to go to the Burari field. We will have an evening meeting to decide the next course of action,” Bharatiya Kisan (Rajewal) Union President Balbir Singh Rajewal told PTI by phone.
Another faction, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), one of the largest farmers’ organizations in Punjab, agreed that they would not go to Burari. The leaders of the faction claimed that more than a lakh of farmers, including elderly women, were marching towards the national capital in trucks, buses and other vehicles.
The numbers increased at the Singhu border point, one of the main access points to the capital from Punjab, and at Tikri, a few kilometers away.
“We will continue to protest here. We will not move from here. Several other farmers have yet to join us from Haryana. They are on their way,” said Sukhwinder Singh, who had been camping in Tikri since Friday night.
He was clear in his question.
“We want to go to Jantar Mantar and hold a peaceful demonstration there. Meetings are being held and until the next decision is made, we will continue to protest here on the border in a peaceful manner.”
Jagtar Singh Bhagiwander, another farmer from Tikri, said the effort was to separate the groups.
“Yesterday, shortly after we were granted permission to enter Delhi, we were told to advance in groups of 50 people one after another. If we have united all the way across different borders, we will remain united,” he said. said.
The peasants came prepared for a long journey, their vehicles loaded with rations, utensils, duvets and blankets for the cold and equipped with uniform charging points for their phones.
“We will not return until the Center removes the new agricultural laws,” said a protesting farmer.
Some farmers from Uttar Pradesh also gathered at the Ghazipur border, ready to unite. Elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh, more than 500 farmers staged a sit-in on the Jhansi-Mirzapur national road in Kulpahad to demand the repeal of the three laws.
Although many groups were unwilling to go to Burari, hundreds of farmers made their way to the land where the government had allowed them.
Joint Police Commissioner (Northern Zone) Surender Singh Yadav told reporters that between 600 and 700 farmers had come to Burari and he expected more.
Among those in Burari was Bhuvan Singh Yadav, who began his journey on November 24 from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh through Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, along with several other All India Krishak Khetdoor Majdoor Sangathan (AIKKMS) members.
“We were stopped by UP police at the Rajasthan-UP border on a bridge, but we did not return. We kept protesting on the bridge, even when it started to rain in this cold. Eventually, the police had to give in,” he said.
“Hum sawaal lekar aayein hain, aur jawaab lekar jaenge, (we came with a question and we will return with an answer),” he said.
Amid the joyous cacophony, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti started a chorus of “Chahe Kuch Bhi Karlo Hum Badhte Jaenge”.
The unprecedented unity of farmers will pressure the government to drop the three acts against farmers, social activist Medha Patkar, who was in Burari with a group of men and women, told NDTV.
He said that it was a decentralized movement and that the protest was against the vulgar inequity in the country.
The three agricultural laws are: Trade and Trade in Agricultural Products (Promotion and Facilitation); The Price Guarantee Agreement (Empowerment and Protection) of Farmers; and Agricultural services and essential commodities (amendment).
Farmers say they fear the laws will pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum price support system, leaving them at the “mercy” of large corporations.
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