Farmers Movement Archive

Crowd thins at Delhi's Ghazipur site, but protesters say they will stay

NEW DELHI: Ghazipur border, which had witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of farmers camping there over the past few months to protest against the three agri laws, looked uneventful on Sunday with merely 70 protesters being in sight there. While some farmers did not seem pleased with being denied permission by Supreme Court to protest at Jantar Mantar, Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders said none of the 478 protesting groups under them had moved the court with any such plea. Dharminder Mukerian, SKM leader and general secretary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Federation, said, “Nobody from the Morcha made a plea in Supreme Court to hold protests at Jantar Mantar.” Amriq Singh, a protester at Ghazipur border, said, “We have endured winter and left our families behind at home to protest on the roads at Delhi’s borders. Nearly 600 farmers have sacrificed their lives. It’s not out of choice. We are fighting for our children’s future and the entire India’s. We have blocked only one carriageway of NH-9. Why is the court blaming us for troubling people by causing traffic snarls? We had left space on both sides for people to commute easily.” “The protest will continue. We are sitting at the borders because we have not been allowed to enter Delhi. Police have sprayed farmers with water cannons. After the government heeds our demand to recall the three farm laws, we will also leave. Why is nobody asking the bigger questions? Farmers represent the entire country,” added Amriq. Mohabbat Singh, a 70-year-old farmer from Shamli in western Uttar Pradesh, echoed similar sentiments. “Even during Bharat Bandh, we made sure that ambulances were not stopped. We also cooperated with police in clearing traffic congestion at Ghazipur border. We are not sitting on protest to trouble people, but to be the voice of all farmers in securing their future,” said Amriq. Jitendar Singh Sandhu of Bharatiya Kisan Union asked why had police barricaded the entire road near Murga Mandi in Delhi and Khoda in UP when they had only blocked one carriageway of NH-9. SKM leader Tajindar Virk and a group of people sitting in a van, who had arrived from Uttarakhand, also said the protests would continue in cooperation with Delhiites. The protesters claimed that the police barricading was “a conspiracy to choke the traffic at Ghazipur border and put the blame on the farmers”. Some people from Punjab claimed that while traffic congestion was prevalent to some extent at Singhu and Tikri borders because of the protest by farmers, it was by no means a reality at Ghazipur.

The Times of India

2021-10-04

Delhi