Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: A year after the Opposition-supported Shaheenbaug protests against the CAA-NRC collapsed, anti-BJP forces, anarchists and rioters infiltrated the two-month-old “farmers’ protests” on Tuesday, diverted the designated routes for tractor rallies, triggered mayhem across the national capital, attacked restrained policemen, and even planted flags other than the National Tricolour on the Red Fort on the 72nd Republic Day— indicating who controlled them like puppets from behind-the-scenes.
Amid this day-long chaos, Union Home Minister Amit Shah headed a high-level meeting of officials. The government suspended Internet service in parts of the capital for hours and ordered the deployment of 15 additional companies of para-military forces to assist the Delhi Police to keep law and order.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Violence is not the solution to any problem. If anyone gets hurt, the damage will happen to our country. Take back the anti-farmer law for the benefit of the country.”
The chaos began to unfold with daybreak despite the police giving farmers camping at Delhi’s three borders — Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur — permission to hold five-hour rallies on specific routes, and only after the official Republic Day parade concluded at Rajpath at noon. As per the bipartite agreement, farmers were supposed to wait in the adjoining areas of the borders until the Republic Day Parade concluded, and not venture towards the center of the city.
But that was not to be. The violence that ensued left one person dead, several policemen injured, and the Red Fort incident blotted the Republic Day fervor in India and overseas. Politicians, who condemned the Centre until yesterday, were the first to quickly distance themselves.
Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amrinder Singh regretted, said this could not be tolerated, and appealed to “all the genuine farmers” to vacate Delhi immediately. “Shocking scenes in Delhi. The violence by some elements is unacceptable. It’ll negate goodwill generated by peacefully protesting farmers,” he tweeted.
Even Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav, who recently became a “farmers’ leader”, tried to wriggle out of the violence and the Red Fort incident. “The people who went there were not the right people, but I cannot run away from responsibility since it would give the agitation a bad name”, he said. Until Monday, he was claiming that the tractor rally will be peaceful and had already blamed the police for any violence.
DMK leader Stalin routinely blamed the Centre for the violence and Shiv Sena spokesman Sanjay Rout, trying to be even-handed, blamed both the Modi Government and the farmers.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, in a statement, said, “We thank farmers for the unprecedented participation in today’s Farmers Republic Day Parade. We also condemn and regret the undesirable and unacceptable events that have taken place today and dissociate ourselves from those indulging in such acts.”
“We dissociate ourselves from all such elements that have violated our discipline. We appeal strongly to everyone to stick to the route and norms of the Parade, and not indulge in any violent action or anything that taints national symbols and dignity. We appeal to everyone to desist from any such acts”.
That the Opposition-fueled “farmers’ agitation” would be hijacked by anti-BJP forces became clear right around 8 AM, when the well-equipped “farmers” broke through the police cordon, pushed away roadblocks using tractors, tried to enter the capital hours well before noon, and started their rally on routes different from those agreed with the police. Thousands of unruly “poor farmers”, on-foot or mounted on newly-purchased tractors or other vehicles, stoned the police at several places, and virtually took control of the capital until evening.
Farmers’ leaders, like Darshan Pal, who had assured the police about maintaining peace, and claimed to have posted volunteers to check infiltration of anti-national elements, could not reply why the farmers started their tractor rally hours ahead of the agreed schedule.