Farmers Movement Archive

Mixed response in western U.P.

Western Uttar Pradesh saw a mixed response to the call of Bharat Bandh given by farmer groups and political parties on Tuesday. While most markets in urban areas functioned as usual, mandis in rural areas remained shut. Members of different factions of the Bharatiya Kisan Union protested on the national and State highways. The police put many local political leaders under house arrest and did not allow them to join the protests, citing Section 144 and the Epidemic Act. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad was placed under house arrest when he tried to participate in the bandh. In a tweet, Mr. Azad said, “Today our annadatas (farmers) need us”, but the Yogi government had put him under house arrest since morning. In Saharanpur, Haji Fazlurehman, Lok Sabha MP of the Bahujan Samaj Party, was also placed under house arrest. “The BJP government is throttling the voice of farmers with force,” said Mr. Fazlurehman. “These laws will only favour the corporates and are against the interests of farmers.” In Budaun, local Congress leaders were placed under house arrest. “We have been stopped from lending support to farmers... It is our democratic right and the BJP government would suffer its consequences in Assembly elections,” said Omkar Singh, district president of the Budaun unit of the Congress. Detained at Noida Rajendra Yadav, president, Bhartiya Kisan Sangathan, was detained along with farmers at the Sector 122 crossing of Noida. “We are being held for violating the Epidemic Act but the government could not wait for the pandemic to be over before bringing in just laws for farmers,” he said. Despite heavy security presence, the impact of the bandh was also seen in Agra, Aligarh, Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Hapur and Gautam Buddh Nagar, where farmers blocked State and national highways. In Aligarh, hundreds of farmers blocked the road leading to the Yamuna Expressway with tractors and trolleys. In Meerut, members of BKU blocked the Meerut-Pauri highway. Farmer groups assembled at nine points in Muzaffarnagar, demanding that the farm laws be repealed. In Greater Noida, farmers jammed the Eastern Peripheral Highway. Hundreds of farmers also blocked the NH-9 in Ghaziabad at the Ghazipur border.

The Hindu

2020-12-09

Ghaziabad