‘Return to your homes’
The Haryana cabinet held a special meeting on Tuesday evening under the chairmanship of Chief Minister M L Khattar in the wake of the events that unfolded in the National Capital during the tractor parade and appealed to all protesting farmers to return to their homes. Khattar said farmer unions had assured a peaceful tractor rally in the National Capital.
“But the events which unfolded today make it clear that this agitation is now not under the control of these farmer leaders. And the command of this agitation is now in the hands of such anarchic elements whose ideology is different from the farmers” interests,” he said. The chief minister issued a statement asking the farmer community to ponder over where their agitation was headed.
“The entire Haryana cabinet, through its special meeting held today, humbly appeals to all farmers of this agitation to return to their homes. The strong need of the hour this time is that together we defeat the designs of the anti-social elements,” Khattar said.
‘Didn’t remove Tricolour’
Amid massive outrage over protesters hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort during the tractor rally on Republic Day, actor Deep Sidhu, who was among those present during the incident, on Tuesday sought to defend their action, saying it was a symbolic protest and they did not remove the National Flag.
In a video posted on Facebook, he said that they should not be given any communal colour or dubbed as fundamentalists or hardliners. “To symbolically register our protest against the new farm legislations, we put up ”Nishan Sahib” and a farmer flag and also raised a slogan of Kisan Mazdoor Ekta,” said Sidhu.
The flag represents the country’s “unity in diversity”, he said while pointing towards the ”Nishan Sahib”, a symbol of Sikh religion seen at all Gurdwara complexes. He stated that the National Flag was not removed from the flagpole at the Red Fort and that nobody raised a question over the country’s unity and integrity.
86 police personnel injured in clashes
The Delhi Police on Tuesday said protesting farmers violated the conditions pre-agreed for their tractor parade and indulge in violence and vandalism, leaving 86 of its personnel injured. In a statement, the police also claimed it did all due diligence in following the conditions for the rally, but the protesters began their march much ahead of the scheduled time and extensive damage to public property was caused during the violence by them.
The police statement came as the National Capital witnessed clashes between protesters and police during the tractor parade by farmers to press their demand of repealing the three new agri laws. “The protesters violated conditions fixed for the rally. The farmers began tractor rally before the scheduled time, they also resorted to violence and vandalism,”
Delhi Police PRO Eish Singhal said. “We followed all conditions as promised and did our due diligence but the protest led to extensive damage to public property. Many policemen were also injured during the protest,” Singhal said.
After hours of chaos during their tractor parade in Delhi against the Centre’s new agri laws on Tuesday, thousands of protesting farmers including those at the Red Fort and Mukarba Chowk, started returning to their sit-in sites at the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders.
Wielding sticks and clubs and holding the Tricolour and union flags, tens of thousands of farmers atop tractors broke barriers, clashed with police and entered the city from various points to lay siege to the Red Fort and climb the flagpole on Republic Day. A protesting farmer died at Delhi’s ITO after his tractor overturned. The farmers draped the body in the tricolour and kept it at the ITO crossing, not allowing the police to send it for post-mortem. Police also had to use lathicharge and teargas shells to control unruly protesters at multiple locations in the city.
“There is no protesting farmer at ITO crossing and the situation is under control,” an official said.
A Mumbai-based law student Tuesday wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde urging him to take suo motu cognisance of the violence that took place at the Red Fort during the farmers’ tractor march on Republic Day. The letter, written by Mumbai University student Ashish Rai, claimed that the tractor march event has been terrorized by some anti-social elements”.
It requested that a Special Investigation Committee be formed on this entire matter to conduct a rigorous inquiry against the anti-social elements involved in this unconstitutional activity and to punish the accused
Mobile internet services have been suspended in three Haryana districts of Sonipat, Jhajjar and Palwal until 5 pm Wednesday, the state government said Tuesday evening, as violent protests by farmers rocked neighbouring Delhi. Haryana’s Home Secretary Rajeev Arora said the order is issued to prevent any disturbance of peace and public order in the districts. The order comes into force immediately and will remain in effect till 5 pm of 27 January, he said.
Traffic movement has resumed per normal standards at Shastri Park to ISBT, Mukarba Chowk to Singhu Border, Loni Border, Chintamani Chowk, Barapullah and DND, the Delhi Traffic Police said. Roads leading to NH-24, NH9 towards Ghaziabad, Peeragarhi Chowk, and Punjabi Bagh Chowk have also been unclogged.
Extremists in garb of food providers, says Sambit Patra
As a tractor parade by farmers protesting against three contentious farm laws turned violent, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said those who were seen as ‘annadata’ (food providers) for so many days have turned out to be extremists.
“Those we had been calling annadata (food providers) for so many days have turned out to be extremists. Don’t defame annadata, call an extremist an extremist only,” Patra tweeted as a section of protesting farmers broke the agreement with Delhi Police and indulged in hooliganism.
He also tweeted a video in which a protestor is purportedly seen throwing away a national flag handed to him from the crowd as he climbs a pole to hoist a different flag. Firstpost could not independently verify the veracity of the visual clip in Patra’s tweet, which has been attributed to PTC News
?????!! pic.twitter.com/gk944uW1ZW
— Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj)
The Palwal police chief and another officer had a narrow escape Tuesday as some protesting farmers allegedly drove their tractors dangerously and tried to break barricades to force their way into Delhi through a non-designated route at Palwal-Faridabad border, police said.
A Palwal police official said some farmers drove their tractors dangerously on the Agra-Mathura-Delhi Highway, endangering the lives of police personnel on duty, which prompted the police action. Some farmers were injured in the incident. Palwal SP Gahlawat told PTI
The tractor march meant to highlight farmers’ demands devolved into anarchy on the streets of the National Capital as hordes of rampaging protesters broke through barriers, fought with police, overturned vehicles and delivered a national insult — hoisting a religious flag from the rampart of Red Fort, a privilege reserved for India’s Tricolour.