The border areas of national capital – Delhi-NCR – on Tuesday witnessed violent clashes between protesting farmers and security forces as agitators attempted to breach security to enter national capital as part of the ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest to put pressure on the Centre for their demands, including a law on minimum support price for crops and loan waivers.
Farmers from Punjab clashed with Haryana Police at two border points between the states, facing tear gas and water cannons as they tried to break past barricades blocking their protest march to the national capital. Twenty-four police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured as protesters hurled stones at them, officials said.
Farmer leaders said police also fired rubber bullets, and claimed over 60 protesters were hurt in the “attack” on them at Shambhu border, close to Haryana’s Ambala city. The police used tear gas and water cannons against the protesters at the border in state’s Jind district as well.
According to police, nine of their men suffered injuries in this clash at Data Singhwala-Khanauri border. In the evening, after a face-off with police that lasted several hours, farmer leaders called off the protest for the day. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ agitation.
Meanwhile, the government last night claimed that it had done much more for the farm sector than the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government and added that notwithstanding the breakdown of talks with the farmers at Chandigarh last night, it “was ready for further discussions”.
The addition of fresh issues by the farmers needed wider discussions, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said. “The government is always ready for discussions. Whenever a demand arises, the government itself comes forward,” he said. Referring to the Chandigarh meeting, he said, “Union ministers sat continuously for several hours at night for discussions. We held two rounds of talks with the protesters. The government is clearly in favour of continuing discussions, but the protesters moved out.”
On the question of resuming talks with the protesters, Thakur said, “The solution to any issue comes only through discussions…. The Modi government is committed to ensuring the welfare of farmers. Over the past 10 years, crores of farmers across the country have benefitted under various government schemes. The protesters need to understand that by continuously adding new issues, a resolution cannot be achieved immediately.”
He referred to the farmers’ demands of India moving out of the World Trade Organization regime; ending the free-trade agreement; stopping the installation of smart meters; exclusion of stubble-burning issue from talks or excluding agriculture from the climate issue. “It is not possible to resolve all these issues in a day,” Thakur added.
