The protesting farmers, who took out tractor rally in Delhi, violated conditions agreed for the rally and went off the designated routes and laid siege to the Red Fort and climbed the flagpole on Republic Day on Tuesday. Later, the Delhi Police removed protesting farmers from the iconic monument. A protesting farmer died after his tractor overturned during the tractor parade. The police had given permission to the Kisans protesting against the new farm laws to hold their tractor rally on selected routes only after the official Republic Day parade on the Rajpath concludes.
The protesting farmers started their 'Kisan Gantantra parade' ahead of their scheduled timing and entered Delhi defying the agreement and created multiple fronts at Karnal Bypass, Mukarba Chowk, Transport Nagar, Akshardham, Gazipur and Tikri border. Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired an emergency meeting following farmers' violence in the national capital. Shah met Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and took stock of the situation. Taking precautionary measures, the government ordered suspension of internet services in parts of Delhi-NCR.
As violence continued on the streets of Delhi, Samyukta Kisan Morcha disassociated itself from the violence during the tractor parade. The farm union said that some "anti-social elements" infiltrated the rally and condemned and regretted the "undesirable" and "unacceptable" events. Traffic was badly affected in many parts of Delhi. Due to the tractor rally, very heavy traffic was witnessed on GTK road, Outer Ring Road, Badli road, KN Katzu Marg, Madhuban Chowk, Kanjhawala Road, Palla Road, Narela & DSIDC Narela roads.
Chaotic scenes were witnessed at ITO, which resembled a war zone. Shells, bricks and stones were found on the streets in the area. Meanwhile, the vehicular movement has resumed at Delhi’s ITO.
Delhi Police said that a protesting farmer died as a tractor overturned at ITO. As per a senior police officer, the person died as his tractor overturned at ITO where many farmers participating in the parade had reached from the Ghazipur border.
Delhi Police said that the protesting farmers broke pre-decided conditions for tractor parade and resorted to violence and vandalism. "The protesters violated conditions fixed for the rally. The farmers began tractor rally before scheduled time, they also resorted to violence and vandalism," Delhi Police PRO Eish Singhal said. "We followed all conditions as promised and did our due diligence but the protest led to extensive damage to public property. Many policemen were also injured during the protest," Singhal said.
Opposition parties, including Congress, Shiv Sena, Left and some other parties condemned violence during the tractor parade.
Thousands of farmers have been protesting at several border points of Delhi against The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
Stalemate continues over talks
The stalemate between the Centre and the farm unions opposed to the new agri laws deepened after the government said the offer to suspend the legislations for up to one and a half years was the best deal possible and its rejection indicated that certain forces did not want a solution. The 11th round of discussions between the Centre and the unions ran aground with agriculture minister Narendra Tomar recounting several suggestions relating to amendments to the laws offered by the Centre and noting that the unions had remained frozen in demanding repeal of the legislations without agreeing to a clause by clause discussion on the reforms.
After the meeting ended without the next date being fixed, Tomar said it appeared there were certain forces which did not actually want a solution and were rather trying to serve their own political interests using the farmers. Such forces had nothing to do with farm interests as they simply wanted the protests to continue to serve their own interests, he added. The unions reiterated their plans to further intensify the agitation.
Before winding up the meeting on Friday, Tomar urged farm leaders to "reconsider the government's proposal", saying further progress could yet be made. Asked if he was hopeful, he replied with a laconic comment, “The sky rests on hope.” Unlike the previous five meetings, talks on Friday concluded without fixing a fresh date - a clear indication of a deadlock with the unions adopting a rigid stand.
After the meeting, farm leader Jagdeep Dallewal said, “At the start of the meeting, Tomar raised the issue of farm groups revealing their response to the Centre’s proposal in the media before informing the ministers. We said the media was outside the meeting and when they posed some questions, we shared the outcome of the meeting in which we rejected the proposal.”
