Cracks in stir after mayhem; farmers call off Feb 1 march
NEW DELHI: Farm unions protesting three contentious new agricultural laws have called off a march to Parliament when the Union government will present its annual budget on February 1, but promised to continue their two-month-long agitation, even as divisions among protesting farmers started to surface a day after the tractor rally in Delhi on Tuesday turned violent.
Leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the platform of farm unions leading the protests, on Wednesday apologised for the violent events in Delhi that have dented the credibility of the movement, saying the buck stopped with them since they had given the call for the tractor march on Republic Day. They, however, continued to claim that there was a “deep-rooted conspiracy” to thwart the agitation.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha also held a series of meeting late into the night on Wednesday, its confidence shaken as it wondered how to carry on an agitation that had forced the Union government to offer a series of concessions, including a proposal to put the laws on hold.
It’s an offer government officials say is still available to the farmers, but that the latter will now have to make the first move.
Several key farm leaders were missing from the front ranks of Tuesday’s rally, which they should have been leading, and there appeared to be coordinated action by farmers at all three entry into Delhi -- all entered Delhi ahead of a schedule that had been decided upon to ensure no disturbance to the Republic Day parade, and sections from all deviated from the route they had agreed on. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha blamed another farm organisation, the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, and two individuals, Deep Sindhu and Lakha Sidhana, for the violations, the violence, and hoisting of religious flags atop the Red Fort that the government said was an act that dishonoured the national flag.
“When an organisation and an individual who are not part of our movement climbed on top of the Red Fort and hoisted a religious flag, why did police not stop them or fire a single bullet? This is clearly a conspiracy,” said Rakesh Tikait, another farm leader. He, however, did not offer any evidence to back the claim.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU)’S Bhanu faction called off its 58-day protest at the Chilla border connecting Delhi and Noida, while condemning Tuesday’s violence. Traffic on the arterial road, disrupted since early-december, was restored late in the evening.
“We are still against the farm laws and want the government to withdraw it. We will decide on our course of action later... We can’t be part of the ongoing protest now,” said Ajab Singh Kasana, vice-president of the group. Back in Uttar Pradesh, a section of Bku-bhanu leaders appeared unhappy with the decision. They called an emergency meeting on Thursday.
In the government’s first reaction to the incident, Union minister Prakash Javadekar, on the sidelines of a press conference, said on Wednesday: “India won’t tolerate the manner in which the Tricolour was insulted at the Red Fort.”
“Whatever happened on Republic Day was a conspiracy by one organisation and two individuals. But since we gave the call for the tractor march, we are morally responsible and apologise,” Yogendra Yadav.