Agitating farmers on Sunday afternoon suspended their “Dilli Chalo” foot march for the day after some of them suffered injuries in tear gas shelling by Haryana police, the protesting farmers will decide on the next course of action on Monday.
After the farmers started the foot march on Sunday, they were halted by the multilayered barricading erected by the Haryana Police at the entry point to Haryana from Punjab. A heated argument took place between protesting farmer ‘jatha’ and security personnel. Haryana Police asked the farmers to show them the requisite permission to take out the foot march. The police claimed they had a list with names of 101 farmers, provided by farm unions, but the names of the protesting farmers were not as per the list. As the confrontation escalated, tear gas shells were lobbed and water cannons were aimed towards the farmers to disperse them, injuring several protestors.
The teargas shells forced the farmers, some of whom had covered their faces and were wearing protective eyewear, to get back a few metres. Some were seen covering the shells with wet jute bags.
Ambala police had earlier said the farmer outfits, which are agitating for a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price and other demands, can march to Delhi only after getting permission from the national capital administration.
The protesters, dubbed as ‘marjeevras’, (someone willing to die for a cause), were stopped only a few metres into the march and the standoff continued for over three hours. The farmers called off their march for the day following action of security forces.
Farmer leader Baldev Singh Zira, who led the ‘jatha’ on Sunday, said it was a “drama” by Haryana Police. “Along with tea, and biscuits, they fired teargas shells,” he said. “They have been exposed,” he said. As the protesters reached the barricades, a few police personnel climbed the roof of a tin shed where security personnel have been stationed, and threw flower petals on a group of farmers.
A farmer said, “They are saying that our names were not on the list. We do not know which list they have. When we asked them whether they would allow us to move ahead after verifying our identities, they told us then we would have to show the permission.”
A Haryana security personnel was seen asking farmers to show permission to march to Delhi and questioned the identity of some of the protesters.
Punjab farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher in the evening said six farmers were injured and one of them was rushed to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh.”We have called back the ‘jatha’ (group of 101 farmers),” he said.
“Whatever happened today was seen by the whole country,” said Pandher as he slammed the use of teargas against farmers. “The (Haryana) administration used tactics like offering biscuits, ‘langar’, showering flower petals. Immediately after showering flowers, they (Haryana security personnel) fired teargas shells and rubber bullets at farmers,” he claimed.
Pandher said the farmers would decide their next course of action after a meeting of their forums -- the Samyuka Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha.
“The Haryana government has turned this border like the India-Pakistan border,” said a protester. Farmer leader Tejveer Singh asked why farmers were stopped from moving ahead when they were peacefully going on foot. “What objection does Haryana have?” He said the farmers would not have to march to the capital had the Centre accepted their demands.
Farmers are sitting close to the cemented wall holding flags. They have arranged water bottles, salt, jute bags to save them from the impact of tear gas.
Ahead of the march, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher alleged that the AAP-led Punjab government is in alliance with the Centre and is working against them. Pandher questioned why media is being stopped at the protesting site.
Farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces. Apart from legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) the farmers are demanding a farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases (against farmers), and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.
Mobile Internet and the sending of bulk messages have been suspended in parts of Ambala district. District officials have already issued orders banning gatherings of five or more people, and government-run and private schools were shut for the day on the administration’s order.
To prevent disruptions, the Haryana Police had tightened security at Ambala’s border with Punjab with multilayered barricades at the Shambhu border on National Highway 44 and also deployed water cannons.
Earlier Haryana Police has written to its Punjab counterpart asking it to ensure media personnel are stopped at a “safe distance” from the protest site for the sake of their safety. It had earlier asked the farmers not to proceed with the march and cited a prohibitory order clamped by the Ambala administration under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) that bans unlawful assembly of five or more people in the district.
In Delhi, Security was tightened at Delhi’s Singhu border on Sunday. “Delhi Police is on alert and security has been tightened at the Singhu border. A skeletal deployment has been made at the Singhu border but it may increase as per the situation at the Shambu border,” a senior police officer said Traffic may also be hit due to the security arrangements at the border and in the central part of Delhi, he said. A strict vigil is also being maintained at the Noida border as another group of farmers from Uttar Pradesh has been protesting there, he added. The officer said police are ready to tackle any situation.