SUKHBIR...

Pant Marg till the entry to Parliament House Annexe, barely 500 metres from the gurdwara, with banners and flags demanding a repeal of the three farm laws.

Police said nearly 1,500 protesters under SAD’s banner gathered at Rakab Ganj to begin their protest march in the morning. “To handle the situation, an adequate number of security personnel from Delhi Police and central armed forces was deployed and barricades were placed to prevent agitators from marching towards Parliament. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal were among 14 people removed from the protest venue and briefly detained at Parliament Street police station. All of them were later released,” said deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav.

However, the proposed march and multiple barricades led to massive snarls on arterial roads in the national capital. In central Delhi, all roads leading to Gurdwara Rakab Ganj and Parliament House were barricaded and checking of vehicles intensified. Commuters were stuck in jams at several places till late afternoon. Police said they received information that around 10,000 farmers were planning to take part in the Delhi march.

SAD has been extending support to farmers protesting at the Delhi border points of Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur since last November, demanding a repeal of the farm laws.

“The party also submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through the executive magistrate. Besides asking for a repeal of the black laws, it demanded a commitment from the Centre that farmers would be consulted before bringing in any new legislation affecting their lives,” SAD said in a press statement on Friday.

In the memorandum, Sukhbir Singh Badal said the three laws “virtually threaten the farmers’ very existence, putting a question mark over their sources of livelihood and even their hold on their lands”. He also said the party broke off its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the government ignored its concerns over the farm bill and enacted the laws. The party put forward five demands, including revoking the three laws, legal and constitutional guarantee of minimum support price, and a resumption of talks with protesting farmers to resolve the deadlock.

Leaders from Samyukta Kisan Morcha – an umbrella platform of over 40 farmer groups which are leading the farmer agitation since last year – did not attend the protest. “None of the SKM members went because it was a call given by a political party. At Singhu, we continued with our everyday events and speeches. If any farmer attended the protest, it would be in their individual capacity,” said an SKM member.

Hundreds of farmers and activists started arriving in Delhi from Thursday afternoon in cars and private buses and were mostly put up at three gurdwaras in the city — Rakab Ganj, Bangla Sahib, and Sisganj — and at the agitations at the borders. Amritpal Singh, who arrived from Punjab earlier this week and was staying in Singhu, was among the hundreds who came to attend the protest march. “Several roads leading to the guudwara were blocked and some of us coming from Singhu were stuck at various points. Our friends and relatives travelling from Punjab were not allowed to enter Delhi,” said Singh, who came from Khatrai Khalan village in Amritsar.