Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 7: As the Supreme Court expressed concern over large gatherings of farmers protesting against the new farm laws at Delhi borders in view of the Covid pandemic, thousands of farmers who have been squatting at the Delhi-Haryana borders for over 40 days took out a tractor march to strengthen their agitation against the new farm laws.
A day ahead of the eighth round of talks between the farmers’ unions and the central ministers on Friday, the protesters took out a tractor rally on Thursday as cacophony of rumbling engines, Punjabi tunes and rousing slogans filled the air with rows of tractors taking over the roads
The tractor march started from four different points – Singhu to Tikri Border, Tikri to Kundli, Ghazipur to Palwal and Rewasan to Palwal.
“The government has been hosting meeting after meeting. They know what we want. We want the laws to be repealed, but all we get are futile talks. With this rally we want to give them a glimpse of what we can do, and what we will do on January 26, the farmers’ leaders said calling Thursday’s demonstration only a rehearsal of the Republic Day “Kisan parade” on the streets of Delhi.
“Today the rally is happening on the periphery of Delhi, but when our farmer leaders decide that we need to enter the capital, we will do that,” said Harjinder Singh from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur.
Perched on their tractors, protesting farmers moved out of the protest site, and speakers on their vehicles belted out music keeping their spirits high. Some of tractors participating in the march were seen with national flags.
Other protestors lined the path providing their fellow farmers with all kinds of supplies, including peanuts, fritters, tea, and newspapers.
Thousands of farmers participated in the tractor rally on the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways in Thursday’s “rehearsal.” Police estimated around 2,500 tractors to be on the expressway while in other parts of Haryana too farmers undertook tractor marches to oppose the three central farm laws.
Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border, where farmers have been camping since November 26, Yogendra Yadav, political activist and a member of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, said the tractors would leave from the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders, and Rewasan in Haryana, for the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways, and meet midway. “This may be seen as a rehearsal of what will happen on January 26,” he said.
The tractor march comes a day ahead of fresh round of talks with the government. The seventh round of talks remained inconclusive on Monday over two key demands — repeal of the newly enacted laws and provision of legal guarantee on the minimum support price — with the two sides drawing the hard line on their respective positions.
“We are the sons of soil. If the laws are passed, we will starve to death. This rally is our way of telling the government that we will not give up unless it gives in to our demands,” said Jaspal Singh Deol from Punjab’s Chamkaur Sahib.
“A lot of people who are not from farming families think that these laws will only affect the farmers, but it’s important they know that if passed these laws are going to have an impact on every citizen of the country,” he said.
Even as the crowd thinned at the Singhu Border, the main protest site, because many left to join the tractor rally, the life continued as usual. Langars kept dishing out meals, and medical camps distributed medicines to all those who stayed back, particularly the elderly and the women. Logs for burning have been brought in huge quantities to keep people warm in the chilling temperatures.
Expressing concern over possible spread of the pandemic due to the farmers’ protest dharna, the Supreme Court asked the Centre whether they were “protected” against COVID-19. The top court expressed the concern over the farmers’ heath while hearing a plea seeking various reliefs including CBI probe into the matter related to assembly of people at Anand Vihar Bus Terminal and the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizammudin Markaz in the national capital after the nationwide lockdown was announced last year to contain the pandemic.
“The same problem is going to arise in farmers’ agitation. I do not know if farmers are protected from COVID. So, the same problem is going to arise. It is not that everything is over,” said Chief Justice S A Bobde, heading a bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.
Meanwhile, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and presently the state Congress president Kamal Nath alleged that the Centre wanted to privatise the farm sector with its three new agri-marketing laws. Talking to reporters Nath claimed the “RSS and the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh were votaries of privatisation since the beginning” as these organisations had opposed even the nationalization of the banks when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister.
Salamudeen Meo, president, Mewat Vikas Sabha claimed that Ramzan Chaudhary, the co-ordinator for the tractor rally from Nuh to Palwal in Haryana, was detained by the Nuh Police and four-five more leaders were put under house arrest on Thursday morning ahead of the rally. He further alleged that the police were not allowing the tractors to assemble on the Gurugram-Alwar Highway to participate in the rally.
The Nuh police, however, claimed that Chaudhary was called to the police station to seek the details of the route for the rally to prepare the traffic plan. He said the tractor rally was allowed, but there was a need to regulate the traffic since large numbers of heavy commercial vehicles plied on Gurugram Alwar Highway (NH-248A). He denied allegations of house arrests as well.