WEB DESK
A large number of farmers who began their journey towards the national capital as part of the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march to protest against the Centre’s farm laws on Thursday faced water cannons and pushed through several police barricades at Punjab’s border with Haryana.
By late evening, the protesting farmers had managed to push through all the security arrangements in Haryana, but have not yet succeeded in entering the national capital. Many farmers were stopped near the Panipat toll plaza in Haryana, but some have managed to move forward to Haldana, which is 62 kilometres from Delhi. It is worth mentioning that the Delhi Police has also increased its presence at the borders to stop the farmers from progressing further.
Several roads have been blocked in view of the farmers’ protest march, while Delhi Metro services from neighbouring cities to the national capital have been suspended till further orders. As the protesting farmers try to reach Delhi, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh slammed the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana government for preventing the farmers’ march to Delhi.
Throughout the day people witnessed stark images of protesting farmers being held back by the police with the help of water cannons and teargas. While most of the clashes between the administration and the farmers were reported from areas around Haryana and Punjab, few disputed the claim that the protests were confined to just these two states alone.
“To begin with, let’s understand that this is not just a Punjab and Haryana issue,” said VM Singh, the national convenor of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), the umbrella body of over 250 farmer outfits from across the country. “This is an issue that’s affecting farmers throughout the country. MSP is not just an issue for the farmers of these two states. It is the question of the 14 crore strong farming community in this country, whom the top leadership of the country has gone against to please just a handful of corporates,” he added.
Singh said that he had personally discouraged many protestors from going to Delhi, which is already battling a ‘third wave’ of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We understand the concerns of the administration. But why is the Prime Minister not willing to listen to the farmers. These farm bills could be kept in suspension till the time the situation is conducive enough for us to sit across the table and discuss each other’s concerns. Why is this government so adamant?” he asked.
Leaders of the 10 trade unions, which are also supporting the farmers’ ‘Delhi chalo’ march, said that protests were observed in not just north Indian states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, but also in southern parts of the country including Kerala, Puducherry, Odisha and Telangana and Tamil Nadu as well. “We assembled in hundreds at Jantar Mantar today to in solidarity with the farmer protests and to voice our anger against the recently introduced labour codes. These protests were held at multiple places throughout the country and they will not end here,” said VS Giri, national secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).
In a statement issued on Thursday, the trade unions claimed, “electricity employees, domestic workers, construction workers, beedi workers, hawkers, vendors, agricultural workers, self employed in rural and urban India are holding demonstrations at various places, even defying police restrictions. They are forming human chains instead, like in Mumbai and various other districts in Maharashtra. At many places, the auto and taxi drivers have remained off the roads.”
Many protesters were planning to march all the way down to the capital and camp there for the next few days but with Uttar Pradesh police stopping social activist Medha Patkar, who was leading a contingent of farm leaders and protestors from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, at the Rajasthan border late Wednesday night, Yogendra Yadav who was also accompanied by trade union and farm leaders in Haryana, the protests might not be able to pick up steam in the coming few days.