News Analysis India

Tag: Farmers Tractor Parade

  • Protesters in Shahjahanpur border vow to continue stir till farm laws are ‘repealed’

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: Farmers continued to protest at Shahjahanpur border in Rajasthan’s Alwar district on Friday, vowing to continue the agitation till the farm laws are repealed.

    On the same day, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party MP Hanuman Beniwal staged a walk out from Lok Sabha demanding the repeal of the farm laws.

    Beniwal”s party was an ally of the NDA government at Centre and had announced separation over the demand to repeal the laws.

    Meanwhile, Kisan Mahapanchayat leader Rampal Jat announced their separation with the Sanyukt Morcha, but said he would continue the protest.

    ​ALSO READ | Bhim Army chief meets Rakesh Tikait at Ghazipur border, offers help to strengthen farmers’ protest

    “It seems that a conspiracy was hatched by the government as it is a fact that the persons who instigated the farmers on Republic Day have not been arrested,” Jat said.

    The farmers’ rally will continue across all the districts, but not on roads, he added.

    Beniwal showed a placard and raised slogans demanding repeal of the laws during the President’s address in Parliament and later staged a walk out.

    “The Centre should withdraw the laws or else this public movement would intensify. The farmers are protesting without any violence so their demands should be fulfilled. The RLP had supported the NDA in view that would listen to farmers and youth, but to no avail,” he said.

    The RLP condemns what happened at Red Fort, he added.

    All India Kisan Sabha vice president Amra Ram said those who hoisted flag at Red Fort were not part of the Sanyukt Morcha.

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    “The government is suppressing voice of farmers. But, we will continue our protest. We will keep a day-long fast on Saturday. Our sit-in protest will continue till the demands are met,” he said.

    In Bharatpur, farmers led by Manudev Sinsini staged protests, raised slogans and burnt effigy of the government at the Centre.

    The farmers gathered at the power house in favour of farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, who is protesting in Ghazipur.

    “Farmers will gather in next three days and thereafter start a tractor rally for Delhi on February 1 to join others participating in the protest. The farmers are 65 of the population of the country and are capable to teach lesson to the government,” he said.

  • Antiquities inside Red Fort missing, tableaux damaged during R-day violence, says Prahlad Patel

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Two brass finials on top of the minar were found missing after chaos ensued in Red Fort complex on Republic Day but were found later in broken state, said Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel on Thursday. 

    The ticket counter was destroyed, Lahori Gate vandalised and lights broken due to the protests, Patel said. “The financial damage of lights and ticket counter can be assessed. But one cannot put a price on the archaeological remains of it,” said Patel, adding the heritage value of the Red Fort complex needs to be preserved.

    In the first floor, an interpretation centre which was under construction had suffered damages too, the Minister said. The biggest loss was at the ‘most high security area’, where finials on a minar were found missing but later found in a broken state, he said.

    The ASI will lodge an FIR on the damages caused. “The tableaux are kept there after Republic Day and people come to view them for a period of seven to 15 days. The tableau by the Ministry of Culture, the Ram Mandir tableau…most of the other tableaux have been tampered with too. This is unfortunate,” said Patel.

    One more farmers union calls off protest  

    BKU (Lok Shakti) chief Sheoraj Singh on Thursday said  that the protest has been called off. BKU spokesperson Shailesh Kumar Giri said, “The protest has been called off,” He farmers’ union had been camping at the Dalit Prerna Sthal since December 2, demanding withdrawal of the three new farm laws, legalisation of minimum support price (MSP) for crops and implementation of the recommendation of Swaminathan Committee’s report. Singh also met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.ALSO WATCH:

  • Farmers’ union calls meeting to discuss violence during tractor parade in Delhi

    By PTI
    Samkyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting unions, has called a meeting later on Wednesday to discuss the violence that broke out during the farmers’ tractor parade in the national capital.

    Before the Morcha meeting, representatives of 32 Punjab unions will also meet at the Singhu border, a major protest site against the three new farm laws.

    A senior farmer leader said, “The Samkyukta Kisan Morcha will meet around 3 pm on Wednesday and discuss all aspects pertaining to violence that happened during the tractor parade in Delhi”.

    ALSO READ | Delhi Police registers 22 FIRs in connection with violence during farmers’ tractor rally

    The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions, is leading the protest against the three central farm laws at several border points of Delhi.

    After violence broke out during the tractor parade on Tuesday, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha had called off the parade and appealed to participants to immediately return to their respective protest sites.

    The tractor parade on Tuesday that was to highlight the demands of the farmer unions to repeal three new agri laws dissolved into anarchy on the streets of the city as tens of thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort The Delhi Police has registered 22 FIRs so far in connection with the violence in several area that has left over 300 policemen injured.

    The Kisan Morcha had disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade, and alleged that some “antisocial elements” infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.

    Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several Delhi border points, including Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, since November 28, demanding a complete repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price for their crops.

  • Haryana Cabinet holds special meeting, appeals to protesting farmers to return home

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Cabinet held a special meeting here on Tuesday evening under the chairmanship of Chief Minister M L Khattar in the wake of the events that unfolded in the national capital during the tractor parade and appealed to all protesting farmers to return to their homes.

    Khattar said farmer unions had assured a peaceful tractor rally in the national capital.

    “But the events which unfolded today make it clear that this agitation is now not under the control of these farmer leaders. And the command of this agitation is now in the hands of such anarchic elements whose ideology is different from the farmers’ interests,” he said.

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    The chief minister issued a statement asking the farmer community to ponder over where their agitation was headed.

    “The entire Haryana cabinet, through its special meeting held today, humbly appeals to all farmers of this agitation to return to their homes. The strong need of the hour this time is that together we defeat the designs of the anti-social elements,” Khattar said.

    Earlier, he described as “most unfortunate” the incident of a protesting farmer hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort.

    Such an incident at Red Fort on Republic Day is strongly condemnable, Khattar had said.

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    “In a democratic setup, there is adequate space to resolve issues through dialogue,” he said, referring to the farmers who have been sitting in protest for two months near Delhi’s borders against the Centre’s new farm laws.

    But no Indian will tolerate anyone hoisting any flag other than the tricolour from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Khattar said.

    This is an insult to those freedom fighters and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of this nation, he added.

    The freedom fighters did not fight for the country’s independence to see the spread of this type of anarchy, Khattar said.

  • Didn’t remove tricolour, was only ‘symbolic protest’: Actor Deep Sidhu amid outrage over flag incident

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Amid a massive outrage over protesters hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort during the tractor rally on Republic Day, actor Deep Sidhu, who was among those present during the incident, on Tuesday sought to defend their action, saying it was a symbolic protest and they did not remove the national flag.

    In a video posted on Facebook, he said that they should not be given any communal colour or dubbed as fundamentalists or hardliners. “To symbolically register our protest against the new farm legislations, we put up ‘Nishan Sahib’ and a farmer flag and also raised a slogan of Kisan Mazdoor Ekta,” said Sidhu.

    The flag represents the country’s “unity in diversity”, he said while pointing towards the ‘Nishan Sahib’, a symbol of Sikh religion seen at all Gurdwara complexes.

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    He stated that the national flag was not removed from the flagpole at the Red Fort and that nobody raised a question over the country’s unity and integrity.

    Leaders across the political spectrum on Tuesday condemned the violence and the Red Fort incident, with the Congress’ Shashi Tharoor saying he supported the farmers’ protests from the start but cannot condone “lawlessness”.

    “Most unfortunate. I have supported the farmers’ protests from the start but I cannot condone lawlessness.  And on #RepublicDay no flag but the sacred tiranga should fly aloft the Red Fort,” the former Union minister said on Twitter, tagging a tweet that carried a video of the incident.

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    “Sidhu, who has been associated with the farmers’ agitation for the last many months, said “anger flares up” in a mass movement like this when the genuine rights of people are ignored.

    “In today’s situation, that anger flared up,” he said.

    Swaraj Abhyan leader Yogendra Yadav, who is among the leaders spearheading the agitation against the farm laws, said they had distanced Sidhu “from our protest right from the beginning”.

    “When he participated in a protest at Shambu border and seeing their activities, the farmer unions had decided to keep them away from our movement,” he said.

    The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions that is leading the protest against the three central farm laws, also disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade, and alleged that some “antisocial elements” infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.

  • ‘Feel ashamed, take responsibility’: Yogendra Yadav on violence during farmer’s tractor parade in Delhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav said he felt “ashamed” of the way the farmers’ tractor parade turned out on Tuesday, and took responsibility for it.

    “Being a part of the protest,” he said, “I feel ashamed of the way things proceeded and I take responsibility of it.”

    The tractor march meant to highlight farmers’ demands dissolved into anarchy on the streets of the national capital as hordes of rampaging protesters broke through barriers, fought with police, overturned vehicles and delivered a national insult — hoisting a religious flag from the rampart of Red Fort, a privilege reserved for India’s tricolour.

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    “Violence impacts any kind of protest in a wrong way. I cannot say at the moment who did it and who did not, but prima facie it looks like it has been done by the people that we kept out of the farmers’ protest,” Yadav told a TV channel.

    “I appealed continuously that we stick to whatever route was decided and not deviate. Only if the movement goes peacefully, we will be able to win,” said Yadav, who has been supporting the farmers’ agitation against the new agriculture laws.

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    Tens of thousands of protesters clashed with police in multiple places, leading to chaos in well-known landmarks of Delhi and suburbs, amid waves of violence that ebbed and flowed through the day, leaving the farmers’ two-month peaceful movement in tatters.

    Farmer leaders, who have been spearheading the protest at the national capital’s border points to demand a repeal of the farm laws, distanced themselves from the protests that had taken such an unseemly turn and threatened to shift public sympathy from their movement.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions, alleged that some “antisocial elements” infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.