A day after clashes broke out between police and farmer groups from the Tikri border during a planned tractor parade that took a violent turn, rioters at the protest site insisted that those who took pleasure in the incident were ” infiltrators “sent to” defame and derail “their movement against three controversial new farm laws.
On Tuesday, a group of farmers who started the tractor march from the Tikri border broke through police barricades to deviate from the route agreed between the agricultural unions and the Delhi police. The police resorted to a lathi charge and fired tear gas projectiles to arrest the farmers, but sporadic clashes and clashes continued between them until evening in Nangloi Chowk.
Hundreds of tractors managed to break through the barricades and marched towards the Red Fort.
A day later, farmers protesting on the Tikri border alleged that those involved in the fighting were not part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a platform of agricultural unions that has been leading the unrest at the entry points of Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur. to the capital. for 63 days.
Jaswant Singh, a member of one of the unions, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kadiya), said: “It is questionable how the police set up the barricades in only one place (Nangloi in West Delhi) to arrest the protesters. Also, how is it possible that adequate security was not deployed at the Red Fort on Republic Day? Everything shows that the government wanted this to happen to divert people’s attention and defame our movement.
Rajvinder Singh, 22, another volunteer at the protest site, said he was among those charged with maintaining “discipline” during the tractor march. “Our leaders had announced that we should start the march only after 11 am, as suggested by the police. But a group, carrying flags of different agricultural unions, began to break through police barricades around 8:30 am and continued on. We ran more than 10 kilometers to stop them, but they didn’t listen to us. I did not recognize them. I think they were trying to get to the Nangloi Chowk before the actual protesters to complete their assigned task, ”Singh said.
Farmers unions were certainly responsible for ensuring that the protests were peaceful and did not resort to violence or desecration of national symbols, and the responsibility for Tuesday’s chaos rests with them. Even Samyukt Kisan Morcha accepted this at a press conference in Singhu on Wednesday night, when he took “moral responsibility” for the violence.
Until Wednesday, several peasant leaders called for “peace” and “discipline” from a stage installed on the site.
“There are attempts to break the unity of the farmers, but we will not allow that to happen. They (the police) also provoked some of our young people and forced them to do what happened on Tuesday. We must not allow that to happen again. I ask everyone to only follow the instructions issued by Samyukt Kisan Morcha and not by the people doing Facebook Live from Red Fort showing their shameful actions, ”said a peasant leader Jiya Lal, addressing the crowd from the stage.
His reference appeared to be to the Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu, who was part of the mob that spearheaded the raising of the Nishan Sahib flag at the Red Fort, and whom the unions blame for things getting out of hand.
Joginder Singh, chairman of another major agricultural group, BKU (Ugrahan), claimed that Tuesday’s incident was part of a “larger conspiracy” and asked farmers not to be discouraged by it.
“Those who traveled to the Red Fort and raised various religious flags were not part of any farmer group,” he said.
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