Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers stay camped on Delhi border

The day started with hundreds of farmers from Punjab and Haryana engaged in a fierce face-off with the Delhi police at the Tikri crossing. Deployed in large numbers, the police had three layers of security in place. Huge cement blocks formed the first line of defence, followed by barricades with barbed wires, and parked trucks, trailers and small commercial vehicles forming the final security layer. The border turned into a virtual war zone with police personnel lobbing tear gas shells and aiming water cannons at farmers trying to cross over. After an hour of tense confrontation, however, the farmers stepped back to return to their vehicles to wait for more convoys to join them. At the Singhu border crossing, farmers pelted stones and broke barricades, while the police used multiple rounds of teargas against them. In the meanwhile, the Delhi Police, which comes under the Union Home Ministry, requested the Delhi State government for permission to convert nine city stadiums into temporary jails to restrain protesting farmers. The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government refused permission early in the afternoon. “To protest peacefully is a constitutional right” and the “Central government should accept farmers’ demands immediately”, said the order issued by Delhi Home Minister Satyender Jain. Soon after, negotiations were held between the Delhi Police, the Delhi government, and farmer leaders at the border point, with some Punjab farmer unions joining in via telephone as they were still travelling on the Haryana highways. By 2.30 p.m., they had reached a compromise, with Delhi Police spokesperson Eish Singhal saying the protesters would be escorted to the Nirankari ground in Burari on the condition that the protest remained peaceful. A faction of young farmers argued that it was better to stay parked on the highway than be shunted off to the Burari grounds. Others wanted to wait for the larger convoys to arrive before making a decision. (With inputs from Saurabh Trivedi and Nikhil M. Babu)

The Hindu

2020-11-28

November 28 2020 00:00 IST