The Bharat bandh, called by farmers on Friday to mark the completion of four months of their agitation against the three new farm laws, saw a mixed response at various Delhi borders. While the road and train traffic was hit at several places in Punjab and Haryana, the bandh’s impact in the national capital and at its borders was minimal.
In fact, at one of the three main protest sites, the bandh turned into festivities.
For farmers at the Ghazipur border between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, it was a mix of protest and celebration. While the farmers had started barricading the National Highway 24 at 6 AM, a few hours later the atmosphere turned festive.
With Holi only a few days away, the farmers took the opportunity to celebrate the festival with their co-protesters.
The Ghazipur protest site was cleared by the cops only a few days ago. But on Friday, the farmers reclaimed the area. Only this time, instead of raising slogans against the government they danced on the beats of the dhol.
A group of farmers from the western Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district brought dhols and taasa and soon everyone was dancing. They also staged a musical protest.
Speaking to India Today TV, UP head of Bharatiya Kisaan Union Rajbeer Singh Jadaun said that Friday’s festivities were just a trailer.
“Several farmers are planning to celebrate Holi at Delhi borders. We have been doing cultural programmes for the last few days now. There are teams from different districts which will participate in the Holi celebration and today what you saw is just a glimpse of those preparations,” Union Rajbeer Singh Jadaun said.
The bandh was called by the Samkyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the farmers' stir. The SKM had urged all to observe Bharat bandh from 6 am to 6 pm on Friday to mark four months of the agitation at Delhi's three borders -- Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri.
While the Bharat bandh protest at the Ghazipur border may not have looked conventional, it caused massive traffic snarls.
The closure of NH-24 created long queues of vehicles between Ghaziabad and Delhi. Traffic jams were witnessed on the Anand Vihar stretch and also on the canal road which provides an alternate route to connect Ghaziabad to Noida and Delhi.
TIKRI BORDER
There was a minimal effect of Bharat Bandh at the Tikri border of the national capital on Friday. Amidst heavy police and paramilitary forces deployed in the area, no protester was allowed to enter inside Delhi.
Also, no commuters were allowed to go towards the protest site as many incidents of locals staging protests against the agitating farmers have taken place in the locality.
Due to the heavy police deployment and prohibitory orders, the protesters moved towards Bahadurgarh in Haryana, where they tried to block the movement of trains.
“Our protest is peaceful. We do not want any untoward incident to happen. All we want is the government to repeal all three new farm bills,” a protester said.
The traffic on adjacent roads remained as usual despite the announcement of the farmer unions about blocking these roads. Police said the situation was under control.
SINGHU BORDER
The protest site, which has become home to farmers for the past four months, saw very little action during the Bharat bandh.
There was a heavy presence of security forces that had put up barricades for preventing anyone from entering Delhi through that route. The vehicular movement was not impacted by the barricades.
Identify cards of everyone who wanted to cross the barricades was checked and those without valid ID were being asked to take the alternate routes.