 "Death and injuries: How farmers' protests devolved into violence yet again")
The farmers’ protest resumed today after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha rejected the Centre’s proposal.
Much like last week, the protest devolved into chaos with the police dropping tear gas on farmers.
Several farmers were injured and one 24-year-old farmer even died on Wednesday.
Thousands of farmers who began the march to Delhi on 13 February were halted at the Haryana border where they clashed with security personnel.
The farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri points on Punjab’s border with Haryana since then.
So how did the protest descend into violence?
Let’s take a closer look:
According to NDTV, farmer groups formed into a human chain at the border.
Dramatic visuals showed around 10,000 farmers with 1,200 tractor-trolleys, and heavy earthmoving equipment facing off against police and security personnel in riot gear.
This included a makeshift ’tank’ which farmers built out of a JCB machine on a tractor on Tuesday.
The police have demanded that the farmers, who they say are “arming youth with sticks, stones, face masks (to protect against the tear gas) and iron shields to attack” security personnel", back down.
On Wednesday morning, some young farmers began heading towards the barricades placed at the Shambhu border.
The Haryana Police responded around 11 am by firing tear gas shells – causing the young farmers to run for cover.
Fleeing the tear gas and clouds of smoke, the farmers, some wearing medical masks, ran into fields surrounding their gathering-point on a highway about 200 kilometres north of the capital New Delhi.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhen they tried to regroup, police fired more tear gas shells at them.
At another protest site about 100 kilometres away, video clips on local media showed police using water cannons and farmers aiming a hose pipe of water at them.
The farmers, accompanied by cranes and excavators, began marching from a spot on a key highway where authorities had erected barricades on the border of Punjab state with Haryana.
“It is not right that such massive barricades have been placed to stop us,” said one of the farmers’ leaders, Jagjit Singh Dallewal. “We want to march to Delhi peacefully. If not, they should accede to our demands."
NDTV quoted Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher as saying, “Around 10,000 people are here at the Shambhu border. The farmers are maintaining a peaceful situation here and tear gas is being used against us through drones. (Protest) will continue until the government agrees to our demands."
According to Indian Express, tractor trollies were also lined up at the Bathinda-Dabwali border.
BBC reported that farmers donned masks, gloves and safety suits to protect themselves. They also sent kites into the sky to disrupt police drones which have been used to drop tear gas.
According to Hindustan Times, several farmers sustained injuries and a 24-year-old protester died of his injuries on Wednesday.
Farmer leaders said this was the first death in clashes since the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march began on 13 February.
The victim has been identified as Subhkaran Singh (21), a resident of Baloke village in Punjab’s Bathinda district, farmer leader Baldev Singh Sirsa said.
Patiala-based Rajindra Hospital’s medical superintendent HS Rekhi told reporters that three people, one of them dead, were brought to the hospital from the Khanauri border point.
He (Singh) had an injury to his head, Rekhi said.
He added that the other two are in ‘stable condition.’
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira attacked the Punjab government.
My heartfelt condolences to the family of deceased farmer Shubkaran son of Charanjit Singh of V.Ballo District Bathinda who was shot by Haryana police today at Khannauri border during #FarmerProtest2024. This is matter of grave concern and at the same time shame for @BhagwantMann… pic.twitter.com/WgXiLxMd4i
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) February 21, 2024
But the Haryana Police claimed no farmers died today.
अभी तक की प्राप्त जानकारी के अनुसार आज #किसानआंदोलन में किसी भी किसान की मृत्यु नहीं हुई है। यह मात्र एक अफवाह है। दाता सिंह-खनोरी बॉर्डर पर दो पुलिसकर्मियों तथा एक प्रदर्शनकारी के घायल होने की सूचना है जो उपचाराधीन है। @ssk303 @DGPPunjabPolice @cmohry @anilvijminister
— Haryana Police (@police_haryana) February 21, 2024
Farmers in Khanauri claimed that Haryana Police also fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
Some of the other injured were also sent to Rajindra Hosptial, according to Hindustan Times.
Indian Express quoted BKU general secretary Kaka Singh Kotra as saying Jasbir Singh Guggu from Baloke village was ‘grievously injured.’
Guggu has been rushed to the government hospital at Patra near Patiala.
NDTV reported that the farmers have halted their march to Delhi for two days, but said that the sit-in would continue.
The farmers have also suspended their protest march to Delhi for two days, though the sit-in protest will continue.
The newspaper quoted the police as saying that three cops had died and 12 were injured in farmer attacks.
दाता सिंह-खनोरी बॉर्डर पर प्रदर्शनकारियो ने पराली में मिर्च पाउडर डालकर पुलिस का चारो तरफ से किया घेराव,पथराव के साथ लाठी, गंडासे इस्तेमाल करते हुए पुलिसकर्मियों पर किया हमला, लगभग 12 पुलिसकर्मी गंभीर रूप से घायल।प्रदर्शनकारियो से शांति की अपील। @ssk303 @anilvijminister @cmohry pic.twitter.com/rn81nzFigQ
— Haryana Police (@police_haryana) February 21, 2024
The Wire quoted SKM leader Darshan Pal as saying that over 100 farmers were injured in the protests last week.
Farmer leaders had initially claimed that over 60 people were injured as they tried to break past barricades while police used tear gas, water cannons.
“Today, farmers wanted to go to the national capital and carrying out such an attack on them … around 60 youths got injured,” claimed Dallewal of the SKM.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had spoken to a farmer injured during police action at the Shambhu border near Ambala.
Gandhi asked the injured farmer where all he sustained injuries, and the farmer replied that he had sustained wounds on his hands and near his eye.
Gandhi accused the Modi government of having a “dictatorial attitude” towards the country’s food providers.
Gandhi’s telephonic conversation on Tuesday night with the injured farmer, Gurmeet Singh, was facilitated by Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Raja Warring who visited a government hospital in Rajpura town of Patiala district after the farmers clashed with Haryana Police.
In a post in Hindi on his WhatsApp channel, Gandhi said, “Talked on phone to former soldier Gurmeet Singh ji, who was seriously injured in police atrocities during the farmers’ movement.”
Twenty-four police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured as protesters hurled stones at them, officials said.
AAP govt hits back at Centre
The AAP government in Punjab in a letter to the Centre on Wednesday it is “completely wrong” to claim the state government was allowing gathering at the two border points with Haryana.
Theresponse came a day after the Centre conveyed its strong objection to the gathering of protesters, estimating that nearly 14,000 people have assembled along the Punjab-Haryana border.
In its communication to the Punjab government, the Union Home Ministry also said the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the state over the past few days has been a matter of concern and asked it to take stringent action against lawbreakers.
The home ministry said many miscreants in the guise of farmers were indulging in stone-pelting, and mobilising heavy machinery along the Shambhu on Punjab’s border with Haryana.
Punjab has allowed a gathering of around 4,500 people with close to 500 tractor-trolleys at the Dhabi-Gujran barrier, the letter claimed.
, Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma said it was “completely wrong” to claim that the Punjab government was allowing people to gather at Shambhu and Dhabhi-Gurjan borders.
Farmers were going to Delhi to hold a protest but because of restrictions on their movement, farmers were at the borders of Punjab and Haryana, he said.
Verma said that till now, more than 160 people have been injured due to tear gas shells, rubber bullets, use of physical force and drones by the Haryana Police.
Yet the Punjab government has responsibly maintained the law and order situation, he said.
He also said the Punjab government played an important role in negotiations between farmer leaders and a panel of union ministers with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann himself attending three out of four such meetings.
In one of the meetings which he could not attend, the CM deputed a cabinet minister and senior officials, he said.
The chief secretary called for showing more sympathy towards farmers, saying the law and order issue during the protest should be tackled in a more sensitive way as Punjab is a border state.
Over 2,000 police personnel have been deputed to maintain peace, according to the communication.
“The situation is being constantly monitored, we will take steps if needed,” the chief secretary said.
‘Ready to discuss issues’
Agriculture minister Arjun Munda on Wednesday invited the protesting farmers for a fifth round of discussion on all issues including the MSP (minimum support price).
The minister also appealed to the protesting farmers to maintain peace and engage in a dialogue to find a solution.
“We are ready to discuss all the issues, be it MSP or crop diversification. We can find a solution only through dialogue. I have invited them for the discussion and appealed to them to maintain peace and find a solution that is good for everyone,” Munda told reporters here.
The farmers also have a slew of other demands including the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.
Commuters face massive jams
Daily commuters between Delhi and Gurugram have been facing massive traffic jams on Wednesday after protesting farmers announced to continue their ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation.
Delhi Police, along with their counterpart in Gurugram, have made elaborate arrangements to stop the farmers from entering the national capital by putting up road blockades at different borders.
The move led to traffic chaos at places like Rajokri border, Sarhol border, Delhi-Gurugram Highway (NH-48) and Delhi-Bahadurgarh
Highway during the official hours from 7 am to almost 11 am.
Several videos were shared online of hundreds of vehicles stuck in traffic jam at Delhi-Gurugram and Delhi-Bahadurgarh roads due to the restriction of movement.
Multi-layered barricades have been put up at several locations.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police beefed up security in the national capital on Wednesday and directed its personnel to ensure strict vigil at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur borders after the protesting farmers announced to continue their ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Jimmy Chiram said there was sufficient deployment of the force besides paramilitary personnel at the Delhi-Haryana borders.
“Our motive is not to disturb traffic. Our main motive is to ensure safety, security and law and order. Deployed teams are checking all the vehicles to ensure that farmers do not enter the national capital,” said the DCP.
With inputs from agencies
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