Fort-like Defence Mechanism in Delhi, Farmers’ Agitation Unlikely to End Soon: BKU

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Feb 2: With the Delhi police laying down multi-layers of barricading including cement walls, spikes and nails as if protecting the national capital against an advancing army of an enemy country, the agitating farmers’ unions said the protest dharna was unlikely to end anytime soon.

“Our slogan is ‘kanoon wapsi nahi, to ghar wapsi nahi’. This agitation will not end anytime soon, may not be until October,” the Bharatiya Kisan Union spokesman Rakesh Tikait, who is one of the key persons in the two-month long agitation said.

The preparations being made by the Delhi police in view of the farmers’ call for nation-wide “chakka jam” for three hours across the country on February 6, seems to be further widening the chasm between the agitators and the central government diminishing the chances of resumption of talks.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella organization of the 40 odd farmers’ unions participating in the protest dharna at Delhi’s borders, in a statement on Tuesday said there could be no formal talks with the government until “harassment” by police and administration stopped and detained farmers were released.

The organisation alleged that increased barricading, including digging trenches, fixing nails on roads, setting up barbed-wire fences, closing internal roads, stopping internet services and “orchestrating protests through BJP-RSS workers” are part of “attacks” being organised by the government, its police and administration against the farmers.

“The SKM decided in its meeting on Monday that there can be no formal talks with the government until police and administration’s harassment of different kinds against the farmers’ movement is immediately stopped. Though no formal proposal for talks came from the government, we clearly state that the talks will be held only after the unconditional release of farmers who are in illegal police custody,” it said.

The Delhi High Court, meanwhile, rejected a petition seeking release of 122 persons the police claimed to have arrested in connection with the Republic Day violence and directed the police to follow normal legal course in the case.

The farmers’ agitation had its echo in Parliament with the opposition creating a ruckus in Rajya Sabha demanding discussions on the farmers’ agitation suspending other routine business. The Upper House had to be adjourned four times before it was adjourned till 9 A.M. on Wednesday. A similar notice has also been given by the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhury for discussing the issue in the House which is likely to create pandemonium in the lower house as well.

Outside the House, taking a swipe at the Narendra Modi government, the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi with pictures of arrangements being made to stop protesting farmers from entering Delhi, tweeted that the Centre should be focused on building bridges with farmers instead of “creating walls” between them.

In a cryptic message he said, “GOI, Build bridges, not walls,” His tweet came at a time when the farmer – Government talks remained deadlocked after 11 rounds of meetings and the government insisting that its doors were still open for discussions if the farmers accepted its offer for suspension of the implementation of the three contentious farm laws up to a period of 18 months and use the time for a negotiated settlement through a committee with representations of all the stake holders. The farmers’ unions so far have held their ground that nothing less than repeal of the three laws was acceptable to them.

Another piece of advice to the government came from Shiv Sena. Its spokesman and MP Sanjay Raut who on Tuesday met Rakesh Tikait, later advised the government to “shun ego.”

“We spoke to Tikait sahib, gave our message and expressed solidarity. The government should speak to farmers in a proper way. Ego would not help run the country,” Raut said after the meeting.

The Shiv Sena has been supporting the farmers who are agitating at Delhi’s border points for over two months against the Centre’s three new farm laws.

“The Maha Vikas Aghadi government took decisions in the interest of farmers. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray stood with farmers when they were in pain,” Raut had tweeted ahead of his meeting with Tikait.

Thousands of farmers, particularly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh had been holding dharna at several points on the borders of Delhi with the neighbouring states since November 26 braving the shivering cold, intermittent rains and other adverse weather conditions, to press their demand for the repeal of the three farm laws passed by Parliament in September.

The unsavoury incidents on the Republic Day in Delhi in the wake of the farmers’ call for taking out a tractor rally hardened the attitude of the government and the law enforcing agencies against the protest, which till January 26 had remained totally peaceful. Almost at the breaking point following storming of the iconic Red Fort, the farmers’ agitation was virtually revived by Rakesh Tikait whose emotional outburst swelled the ranks of protesters with more farmers joining the dharna on Delhi’s borders than the number present before the R-Day.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The protesting farmers have expressed the apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporate houses. The Centre, however, has said that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and reform the agricultural sector.

Worried over the farmers’ call for nation-wide “chakka jam,” on Saturday, the police are beefing up security around the national capital to avert another R-Day like mayhem. At Singhu border, iron rods have been hooked between two rows of cement barriers on a part of the main highway to further restrict the movement of protesters.

Another portion of the highway at the Delhi-Haryana border is blocked with a makeshift cement wall.

At Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, there are multi-layer barricades to stop the movement of vehicles and barbed wire has been put up to stop people from moving even on foot. No vehicles are being allowed to ply within two kilometres from the dharna sites to ensure the farmers could not make a sudden entry with tractors or other vehicles.

The Morcha (SKM) termed the “frequent Internet shutdown” at protest sites and blocking of many Twitter accounts related to the farmers’ movement “direct attack on democracy”.

Twitter on Monday blocked several accounts and tweets after the government asked the microblogging platform to take action against 250 handles and posts for containing ‘false and provocative content’ related to the ongoing farmers’ agitation, according to sources.

“It appears the government is extremely fearful of the rising tide of support for the ongoing protest from different states,” the SKM said.

The SKM, in a statement, said the Delhi Police has released a list of 122 agitators who have been taken into custody.

It said, “The SKM strongly condemns the arrests and detention of many protestors in different police stations and the seizure of vehicles of farmers. Scores of people are reported to be missing and this is a matter of great concern to us.”

“We demand their immediate release. We also condemn the attacks and arrests on journalists who are continuously covering the movement,” it said.

A legal team has been set up by the SKM, with representatives of different organisations which will systematically pursue the case of those missing, arrested and seized vehicles, the Morcha said.