Farmers Movement Archive

‘A flower for every nail’, pledge farmers at Ghazipur

“The government will plant nails and razor wires for us, we will plant flowers for it,” said Sukhjeet Singh, a farmer, pointing to a group of men digging a patch of land near the coils of sharp concertina wires placed as part of the several layers of barricading at the Ghazipur border near Delhi. “We have already planted potatoes and sugarcane in two rows. This is all we know or can do. What they [the government] have done is their job; we farmers will do ours,” Mr. Singh said as some of the farmers squatted to plant flowers while others, at a little distance, patted the soil where they had sown vegetables on Saturday afternoon. As the national chakka jam announced by farmers’ unions got under way elsewhere, agitating farmers at Ghazipur announced they would give the government “a flower for every nail” hammered into the roads on Delhi borders to keep the protesters from entering. “We are demanding our rightful due, not asking for something that doesn’t belong to us. The government will remember us long after we leave for standing up to it despite every obstacle it has, and plans to, put in our way,” said Manveer Rathi, a farmer from Ambala. Stepped-up security Security arrangements at the protest site were stepped up on Saturday in view of the chakka jam . Razor wire fencing was added to the initial layers of police barricades at road surface level, riot control vehicles and a truck with an iron container were parked to stall a possible vehicular advance towards Delhi on the flyover where the farmers have erected their stage. Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said they had decided not to observe the chakka jam in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand because of inputs that attempts would be made to defame the movement through individuals indulging in violence in the garb of farmers at “at least five locations”. The farmer unions’ next agitation, he said, would feature a rally up to the office of the National Green Tribunal, which is “seeking to bestow more profit on corporate houses by banning diesel vehicles — mainly tractors — which are over 10 years old”. Mr. Tikait issued an appeal to farmers across the country to bring a handful of soil to the movement.

The Hindu

2021-02-07

Ghaziabad