Farmers Movement Archive

At Tikri Border, farmers run into new wall

NEW DELHI: A group of people claiming to be local residents gathered at the barricades near Tikri border on Friday and demanded that the protesting farmers vacate the road they had made their own for two months. The locals claimed to be angry with the farmers for dishonouring the national flag at Red Fort on January 26 and no longer wished to support their agitation. “We gave them water, showered them with petals and welcomed them, but after what they did on Republic Day, we don’t support them anymore. Our shops have been shut since the protest began, and we are facing losses. So, they must now vacate the road and return life to normalcy,” said Dharambir, who also threatened to have the protest site forcibly cleared if the farmers did not wind up their sit-in in two days. The group later wanted to hand over a memorandum to the farm leaders on the protest dais. This led to a minor face-off between the two parties, but the police pushed the residents back after which the protesting farmers blocked the entry to the protest site. Delhi Police has installed barricades and stationed trolleys and trucks on the road to prevent the protesters from proceeding towards Delhi. The Tikri demonstration by the local residents follows a similar act by another group of people at Singhu border on Thursday. The Tikri residents held up placards and used a loudspeaker for sloganeering. They asked the cops to let them march ahead so that they could get the roads vacated. Praveen Kumar, a resident of Tikri village, alleged, “These people are not farmers because a farmer would not indulge in such violence on Republic Day. The protesters disrespected the flag and we can’t let them sit here anymore. We treated them well so long as they were behaving well. Now we won’t tolerate them. Do they know that policemen they brutally attacked during the violence are also sons of farmers?” The hundred or so people, which included some women, requested the police officers present at Tikri to allow them to present a memorandum to the farmers. Police asked them to go to the protest site for the act. A brief face-off ensued, but the cops pushed back the locals and asked them to disperse. One or two aggrieved men also tried throwing stones, but their efforts were rebuffed. Following the fracas, the farmers placed boulders and wires to block the entry to the protest site. Baldev Singh Sandoha, 67, district president of Bhartiya Kisan Union in Sidhupura, said, “We have been protesting and we shall continue to protest until the black farm laws are repealed. These are people sent by the central government to ruin our agitation, but we won’t let that happen. We don’t want to argue with them, only to continue with our agitation. The Centre can try to build up the pressure on us, but we will persevere.” Meanwhile police deployment has increased in the area and more roadblocks have been put up to stop the farmers from moving to the Delhi side. Besides these, several trolleys and other impediments have been placed on the road in a zigzag arrangement.

The Times of India

2021-01-30

Delhi