NEW DELHI: Farmers protesting at the Ghazipur border on Tuesday tried to break the barricade by ramming a tractor into it, only to have police pushing them back. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad arrived at the protest site in the afternoon and more farmers from Uttar Pradesh joined the protest.
Around 10am on Tuesday, farmers riding tractors and on foot tried to break the first of the barricades but were quickly repulsed by the security personnel. Apart from Delhi Police, the others manning the border are CISF, CRPF and RAF. Around 3pm, the Bhim Army chief arrived and, standing next to Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, declared, “I am an andolankaari (agitator) and support the farmers. The new agriculture laws will take away the lands of the farmers.”
A handful of women farmers joined the protest on Tuesday. By evening, the demonstrators’ number had swelled up. Shailendra Kumar Singh, additional district magistrate (City), said, “A group of farmers arrived from wester UP and tried to breach the barricade. Except for that, things were pretty calm through the day.”
In fact, the protest organisers weren’t keen on provoking the cops. Succha Singh, a farmer from Meerut, was deployed at the far end of the barricaded area, alert at the steering wheel. “We have placed a couple of tractors across the road as the last line of defence,” said Singh. “This is to deter any possible overzealous farmer from trying to cross over to the Delhi side. I am in charge of stopping any such misadventure.”
And though Tikait said the farmers would not allow the protest to be politicised, besides Azad, Pappu Yadav of Jan Adhikar Party also extended his support to the protesters. Yadav contented that the new farm laws were not in the favour of the land tillers and the central government should withdraw them immediately, paying heed to the concerns of the agriculturists.
Rajvir Singh, an office bearer of BKU from Ghaziabad, declared that if the intent of the government was good, “then it should pass a law that criminalised the purchase of farm produce below the minimum support price”. He added, “But, the Centre’s hesitation in addressing this core issue of our problems is suspicious.”
In the evening, the protest site was dotted with half-lit bonfires. “It gets cold during the night so we have to make arrangements for wood for the bonfires to keep us warm,” said Amit Awana, who is affiliated with Kisan Ekta Sangh.
A Sikh group, not associated with farmers, prepared food for the agitators in a makeshift kitchen. “As a mark of solidarity with the protesting farmers, we are preparing meals for them,” explained Balkar Singh. “We make some dishes here, but most of the food is ferried in mini trucks from our mega kitchen in a nearby gurdwara.” He said they were feeding around 1,000 people, among them media people. Among the crowd was a young protester who had his entire back tattooed with the names of martyred soldiers.
Amid all this, there was a small commotion when policemen caught hold of two youths, Gulzar and Dharmendra, who they alleged were pickpockets. A farmer told the cops, “Check them, they have stolen my mobile phone.” Given the circumstances, the cops could not but drag the two accused to the nearest police picket.