In PicturesFarmers with tractors, hookahs & chaupar — rare photos of protests at...
Farmers with tractors, hookahs & chaupar — rare photos of protests at Delhi’s Boat Club
The Boat Club became one of the main areas for holding agitations in Delhi after the 1988 farmers' protest. Prominent leaders would only hold rallies at the club.
Farmers gathered around the body of a farmer who had lost his life during the 1988 protest at the Boat Club in Delhi | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
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New Delhi: As thousands of farmers continue to camp at the Delhi-Haryana border in protest against the new farm laws, parallels are being drawn to the October 1988 Boat Club agitation in the capital city. Nearly five lakh farmers had occupied the Boat Club and its lawns, near the North and South Blocks, with a litany of demands before the Rajiv Gandhi government.
The movement, lead by Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, was initially planned to last for one day but went on for nearly a week. The protest had halted VIP movement in the area, days before the Parliament’s winter session was about to start.
This agitation catapulted Tikait into the limelight, as he emerged as one of the prominent farmer leaders.
In the months and years after the agitation, Boat Club also became one of the major areas for holding agitations, much before Jantar Mantar became the usual site for protests in Delhi. Prominent leaders, with large following, would only hold rallies in the Boat Club.
ThePrint’s National Photo Editor Praveen Jain brings some rare pictures from his personal archives of protests that took place at the Boat Club in 1988 and thereafter.
Mahendra Singh Tikait (centre) surrounded by farmers at the Boat Club protest in 1988 | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFarmers also gathered at the Rajpath in 1988 in protest against the Rajiv Gandhi government | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintA group of farmers playing chaupar (a board game) in the lawns of the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFarmers gathered at the Rajpath with tractors and trolleys | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintTikait sits among the farmers, as he smokes hookah | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFarmers surround the body of a farmer who had lost his life during the 1988 protest at Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintTikait taking a shower under a tube well in his village Siauli, Uttar Pradesh | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintTikait comes out wearing a dhoti after his bath | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFreedom fighter and politician Raj Narain (lying down) on fast during another protest at the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint(From left to right) Former PM Chandra Shekhar Singh, BSP founder Kanshi Ram, former CM of Haryana Hukam Singh and former CM of Haryana Om Prakash Chautala at a rally at the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFormer deputy PM Devi Lal (right) and former CM of Karnataka Ramakrishna Hegde during a rally at the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFormer PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressing a rally at the Boat Club| Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFormer PM Rajiv Gandhi after attending a rally at the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFormer prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh addressing a rally at the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintBJP leader Maneka Gandhi with her son Varun Gandhi at the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrintFormer defence minister George Fernandes (L) with Arun Nehru (R) during a rally at the Boat Club | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint
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