Farm protests: Thousands left high & dry for 10 hours
Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10hour shutdown against the Centre’s three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.
The 6 am to 4 pm Bharat Bandh, which saw demonstrations and rallies in many places, passed off relatively peacefully with no reports of injuries or serious clashes. The impact was felt the most around Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, the centre of the farm protests, and also in large pockets of Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha.
Protesters blocked highways and arterial roads and squatted on tracks in several places from morning as the shutdown called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions, got underway. The blockade was lifted at 4 pm.
The SKM claimed in a statement that its call for a shutdown had received an “unprecedented and historic” response from more than 23 states and not a single untoward incident was reported from anywhere.
“Reports have been pouring in about the overwhelmingly positive and resounding response to the Bharat Bandh call … to mark 10 months of peaceful protests with rightful demands from the ‘annadaatas’ of the country,” it said.
The day marks one year since President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the three controversial laws and 10 months since thousands of farmers set up camp at Delhi's border points to voice their protest. Looking ahead, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said at an online discussion that a solution could only be reached through dialogue and not in the courts.
“I don’t know what is going to be the end of this protest but the movement has begun and the country’s youth, which often remained away from discussion on farming-related issues, is also joining it,” he said.
Tikait also issued a statement to say that the response had shown their protest is a “pan Indian” one. The agitation, he said, can end today if the Centre agrees to a rollback.”
Though life in large parts of India was unhindered by the shutdown, north India felt the pinch with about 25 trains being affected and massive jams that prevented the cross border movement of commuters as well as trucks carrying essentials.
The Delhi-ncr region, including the satellite towns of Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida, where thousands cross the borders each day was particularly hit. Delhi itself was mostly unaffected, but there was chaos at its borders with traffic snarls that stretched through much of the day and commuters who couldn't get to office, or college or even to that important doctor's appointment.
Farmers blocked other roads leading into the national capital, including at Ghazipur in western Uttar Pradesh. Not far away in Sonipat in Haryana, some farmers squatted on tracks. In nearby Patiala in Punjab, too, members of the Bku-ugrahan sat on the tracks to register their protest.
Punjab saw a complete shutdown in many places, including Moga where farmers blocked national highways. Farmer leaders from Punjab have, in many ways, spearheaded the year-long protest.
“#I Stand With Farmers & appeal the Union Govt. to repeal the three anti-farmer laws. Our farmers have been struggling for their rights since more than a year & it is high time that their voice is heard…,” Punjab’s new chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi said in a tweet.
According to the SKM, people gathered at more than 500 locations in Punjab to express their support to the bandh.
In neighbouring Haryana, highways in Sirsa, Fatehabad and Kurukshetra were blocked.
There were also reports of farmers squatting on rail tracks at a few places in the two states. “More than 20 locations are being blocked in Delhi, Ambala, and Firozepur divisions. About 25 trains are affected due to this,” a Northern Railway spokesperson said.
Many non-nda parties extended support to the bandh. These included the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Left parties and Swaraj India. The YSR Congress government in Andhra Pradesh had also announced support to the Bandh.
In West Bengal, life was largely unaffected but Left activists blocked roads and railway tracks in many places. Images from Kolkata showed protesters swarming a section of a railway track. Similar images came in from West Midnapore with Left Front supporters blocking the IIT Kharagpur-hijri railway line.
The ruling Trinamool Congress stayed away but said it supported the demands of the SKM. Elsewhere in the region, vehicular movement was impacted and shops shut in several places in Jharkhand. In Bihar and Odisha, too, there was a mixed response.
In Kerala, where the strike was supported by the ruling LDF and the opposition Congress-led UDF, KSRTC bus services were off the road with almost all trade unions in the state taking part.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the farmers' nonviolent 'satyagraha' is still resolute. Posting rhyming lines in Hindi on Twitter, Gandhi said: “Farmers’ nonviolent satyagraha is resolute even today, but the exploitative government does not like this and that's why it is Bharat Bandh today.”
FARMER LEADER RAKESH TIKAIT SAYS THE SOLUTION TO THE FARMERS’ PROTEST CAN BE REACHED ONLY THROUGH DIALOGUE AND NOT IN COURTS