No Jantar Mantar, Centre Allows Protesting Farmers in to Remote Edge of Delhi

Earlier in the day, the Delhi police had sought permission from the Delhi government to allow them to convert nine stadiums in the capital into prisons.

Mohali: The Union government on Friday afternoon gave a free passage to protesting farmers into a tiny and remote corner on the fringes of Delhi after lakhs of them braved severe police action both at the Punjab-Haryana and at the Delhi-Haryana borders throughout Thursday and on Friday morning.

The Delhi police commissioner told the media that protesters have been given the permission to move towards protest site at the Nirankari Samagam Ground in Burari, 20 km from the usual Central Delhi protest site of Jantar Mantar.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi police had sought permission from the Delhi government to allow them to convert nine stadiums in the capital into prisons. But Delhi home minister Satyendra Jain had turned down the police’s demand. He said that the farmers’ protest is legitimate and they must be heard.

In the morning, at the Singhu border, the Delhi police tear gassed protesters. Earlier, protestors from Punjab were stopped at the Haryana border by Haryana police using water cannons and tear gas shells. Bulldozers and concertina wires were laid down on the highways. Near Sonepat, trenches were also dug up. But the protesters manage to cross almost all blockades on their way.

The AIKSCC in a press statement has said, “The government of India had to surrender to the will and resolve of farmers of India, to march into the National Capital, to voice their demands.”

On Friday morning, over 100 protesters who had reached the Singhu border between Delhi and Haryana were stopped by teargas shelling. 

According to the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda), a young protestor from Mansa district of Punjab passed away near Mundhal in Bhiwani district of Haryana on Thursday night due to an overhead collision of his tractor with the truck full of sand bags. The truck was being used as a barricade by the Haryana Police.

Farmers gather around the body of Dhana Singh, a protestor who died in an overhead collision. Photo: Gurdeep Dhaliwal

Visuals from protestors on the ground show that near Sonipat, the administration dug up trenches, put boulders and parked trucks filled with sandbags to prevent protestors from heading towards the national capital.

At two places, farmers breached the barricades put up by the police and began marching towards Delhi. The Delhi police then sought the government’s permission to convert nine stadiums into ‘temporary jails’.

Responding to this development, Kavita Kuruganti of the AIKSCC said in a press statement – “We condemn this attitude of Delhi Police and the language being used by the Government of India with regard to farmers. Farmers of India, our annadaatas, should be treated as state guests and it is deplorable that ‘prisons’ are being talked about. The GoI must withdraw all barricades and receive the farmers in Delhi.”

Also read: Farmers’ Protest LIVE Updates | Farmer Dies in Overhead Collision

Earlier in the day on Thursday, at the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana, protestors braved water cannons and pushed back by flinging barricades into the river.

After a long showdown, they entered Haryana and camped at Sonipat, Panipat, Jhajjar and Rohtak for the night.

At the UP border, farmers from Uttrakhand under the banner of Tarai Kisan Union were also prevented from entering the state. Near Agra, activist Medha Patkar and around 500 protestors marching along with her from Madhya Pradesh were detained by the UP Police.

In Gurgaon, farmer leader, activist and president of Swaraj India Yogendra Yadav was detained on Thursday afternoon. From Jantar Mantar, the All India Kisan Sabha’s Krishna Prasad was detained too.

On Friday morning, the protesting farmers’ organisations, in a letter to the Prime Minister urged the government to stop its confrontationist attitude”, let them reach Ram Lila Maidan peacefully and hold talks with the government.

The letter notes: “Ensure that the farmers have a safe passage into Delhi without creating a situation where any untoward incident is justified later on, as having been necessitated, which will cause a completely avoidable break away from the very peaceful manner that we have adopted so far.”

The letter condemns the police action on farmers. It also notes that the farmers had to face “unprecedented obstacles placed in their way by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments presumably also at the behest of the central government, which tried every possible means to stop them – regular barricades, sand-laden trucks in multiple layers, barbed wire fences, huge boulders placed across the roads and even trenches on the road, water cannons and tear gas. All of this in the cruel winter in north India.”