Farmers Movement Archive

A day after clash, farmers vow to stay on at Singhu border

NEW DELHI: A day after the clashes there, Singhu border was turned into a fortress on Saturday, with security visibly tightened at the biggest protest site of the agitating farmers. With a five-layer security in place, even the media had a hard time finding its way to the protest site. The crowd, however, has visibly swelled since the Republic Day mayhem. The protesters asserted that more farmers from Punjab and Haryana would be joining the protest soon. The entry to the farmers’ protest venue was closely guarded by police and paramilitary forces. GT Karnal Road leading to the protest site was blocked with five layers of concrete blocks that were manned by a large posse of police and paramilitary personnel. Several points on the stretch and on the roads connecting to the villages were also dug up to prevent movement of vehicles. An officer said that after the blast near the Israeli embassy on Friday, police could not take chances and so had increased the security cover at Singhu. He added that after the Republic Day rampage and the clashes with the local residents, the security at the protest sites would prevent any acts of violence. Protester Guneet Singh alleged, “These people who call themselves local residents aren’t known to anybody at the protest site. The actual people who live along the protest site have become like family members to us. They visit us every day and even though we have all the facilities at the border, they make sure that if there is anything we need, they will help us with that. The men who attacked us yesterday were not locals but a group of hooligans.” Meanwhile, exasperated by the internet ban but still willing to continue with their agitation against the three central farm laws, the farmers expressed their resolve to keep the movement going despite the pressure they were being put under. Jatinder Singh of Ludhiana said that even if their image was tarnished because of the misadventure of miscreants, they would do their best to regain the support they got from the people when the agitation began. Ramneek, a protestor from Bhatinda, said that after the violence on Republic Day, there were visibly fewer people at Singhu border, but more farmers had started arriving. This was evident on Saturday when the roads in the Singhu area appeared to be just as swamped with farmers as in the early days of the protest around two months ago. One of the farmer organisations, Samyukta Kisan Morcha, had given a call for a one-day fast to observe Sadbhavana Day (Harmony day) on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Saturday.

The Times of India

2021-01-31

Delhi