They admit that the violence in the national capital will weaken their negotiating position.
There were many finger points as agricultural union leaders were quick to distance themselves from protesters who engaged in clashes with police and rampaged around the Red Fort on Tuesday, but several admitted that the violence could weaken their cause.
The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, a defiant Punjab union that was the first to break the agreed route, blamed “antisocial elements.”
“We strongly condemn the incident. It is an act of antisocial elements. We never had any plans to go to the Red Fort and hold any kind of protest there. The targeting of these antisocial elements appears to weaken the current farmers’ movement, ”said KMSC Secretary General Sarvan Singh Pandher. “If our team had planned to go to the Red Fort, the key leaders would have led from the front. But we had no such plans. We had only planned to hold a tractor parade on the outer ring road, “he added.
All India Kisan Sabha Secretary General Hannan Mollah, who is part of Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s leadership that has been negotiating with the government, blamed the KMSC, as well as a “rogue criminal element”, for betraying the farmers.
“We condemn such action. It is not that farmers are out of control. Some rogue criminal elements are causing the problem. There is a conspiracy to give farmers a bad name,” he told The Hindu, noting that the protesting farmers had conducted peaceful agitation for the past seven months since the three laws were initially introduced as ordinances.
The SKM noted that peaceful protests had taken place in many parts of the country on Tuesday, including tractor parades in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Bihar. Even in Delhi, most tractors stuck to agreed routes, while thousands of others were unable to even leave the protest sites.
“If you look across the country, there may be more than a million people on the streets. There are a few hundred who are breaking the rules here. The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee is not a main part of the movement,” Mollah said. . “Those farmers who are doing this are traitors to the farmers’ cause. Someone who is breaking the rules in this way, causing riots, is actually helping the government win, and they cannot be called part of the movement … The flag at the Red Fort was never the objective of the farmers. We want the government to listen to our demands. This does not help that objective, “he added.
BKU-Tikait leader Rakesh Tikait, who led the group on the Ghazipur border, blamed the prolonged fighting for more than six months and protests of more than two months on the Delhi borders as one reason for the situation. He also blamed the Delhi police for the initial deviation of farmers from the agreed route, saying that because no barricades were put up in the right places, the tractors were lost and accidentally entered Delhi. “As a result, undesirable elements and some organizations had the opportunity and did everything possible to disrupt this parade. BKU disassociates itself from those involved in this act, ”he said, adding that BKU would work to identify disruptive elements. “The farmers union has always believed in a peaceful movement. BKU has never committed and will not participate in any exhibition or violent act that affects national symbols, ”he said.
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On the border of Shahjahanpur, where the parade went smoothly, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav initially posted a video asking protesters in the city not to cloud the movement. Later that night, he said he would take responsibility. “Being part of the protest, I feel ashamed of the way things proceeded and I take responsibility for it,” he told a television channel. “Violence impacts any type of protest in the wrong way. Only if the movement goes in peace, can we win, “he said.
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