Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 27: Whether by design or sheer chance, the protesting farmers by resorting to unwarranted violence on the Republic Day has provided on a platter what the central government must have most ardently desired, cracks in the farm union ranks and blame game among themselves thereby weakening the agitation.
A day after the violence in which one farmer was killed in an accident and over 300 police personnel injured, at least two farmers unions disassociated themselves from the two-month long agitation and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) the umbrella organization of the 41 farmers union spearheading the dharna on the borders of Delhi, on a much subdued note decided to “continue” the agitation but was feeling shy of giving any call for demonstrative protests.
Pushed on the back foot, the SKM blamed to a “conspiracy” for the violence on the streets of Delhi and the sordid events at the iconic Red Fort considered to be the crown of India’s independence where the prime minister of the day are hoisting national flag on August 15 every year. In a resolution adopted at a meeting on Wednesday morning convened to chalk out the future course of action in the aftermath of R-Day chaos, said the union government under “tremendous pressure” from the strong agitation by the farmers “hatched a dirty conspiracy” with some of the farmers’ organisations to derail the peaceful agitation by resorting to unprovoked violence.
After 11 rounds of talks with the farmers unions failed to break the deadlock with the agriculturists refusing to accept anything less than the total roll back of the three contentious acts and the central government making repeal a prestige issue, this could be the best way out for the authorities to bring an end to the indefinite blockade of Delhi’s borders by the squatting farmers.
Even as the SKM blamed infiltration into the agitation by some anti-social elements for violence to defame the farmers, two farmer unions – Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan and Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu) – promptly separated themselves from the ongoing farmer protesters at Delhi borders a day after the Republic Day mayhem. “We had joined the protest for Minimum Support Price and not for the people to get martyred or beaten up,” the RKMS leader V M Singh said. He, however, claimed that his group would continue the agitation, but in their own way, till the MSP was guaranteed by the government.
The BKU (Bhanu) president Thakur Bhanu Pratap Singh said, “I am deeply pained by whatever happened in Delhi yesterday and ending our 58-day protest.”
While the Delhi police registered 22 FIRs at different police stations for various incidents of violence and named several senior farm leaders in the FIRs besides detaining some 200 people for questioning in connection with the violence, most of the farmers’ organisations decided against calling off the agitation and met to chalk out future course of action. But the proposed march to Parliament on the budget day on February 1 is most likely to be taken off from the agenda for the time being apprehending that any such call could provide another opportunity to the unruly elements to instigate violence and bring disrepute to the peace-loving farmers.
The police, however, have not taken any action against some of the hooligans name by the farmers’ leaders to have participated and instigated the violence on the Republic Day including one Deep Siddhu, a BJP card holder who was claimed to have actively campaigned for the Bollywood actor Sunny Deol in the 2019 Parliamentary elections. Several leaders also claimed that several of the 15 people the farmers identifying and handing over to the police on Wednesday for participating in yesterday’s violence were found to be carrying government identity cards.
The SKM resolution said the “Union government has been severely shaken by this peasant agitation. Therefore, a dirty conspiracy was hatched with Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee and others against the peaceful struggle of other farmer organizations who had set up their own separate protest site after 15 days of beginning of this Farmers’ agitation. They were not part of the organisations which jointly undertook the struggle.
“When the farmer organizations declared a programme of Kisan Parade on 26 January, anti-social elements like Deep Siddhu and others, along with the said farmer organization attempted to torpedo the farmers’ agitation.
“Under this conspiracy, the said Kisan organisation and other persons announced that they would march on Ring Road and unfurl a flag on the Red Fort. As a corollary of conspiracy, the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee started marching on the Ring Road, two hours before the scheduled march of the struggling organisations. It was a deep rooted conspiracy to knock down the peaceful and strong farmers’ struggle.
“All the constituents of Samyukta Kisan Morcha strongly condemned this incident.
“The struggling organisations appealed to the farmers to stay on the protest venues and continue a peaceful struggle. The farmers’ organisations resolved to continue this agitation and harshly condemned the government and its administration, the said farmers’ organisation and anti-social elements, who tried to damage the peaceful farmers struggle.
“The organisations resolved not to allow the government and other forces inimical to the peaceful movement to break this struggle. Yesterday’s events exposed and isolated the anti-farmer forces clearly,” the SM resolution said.
The SKM claimed that the KMSC was “not part of the organisations which jointly undertook the struggle”, noting that the Punjab union had set up its own separate protest site with a separate stage at the Singhu border within 15 days of the start of the agitation. Although the KMSC was the part of the negotiations with the Centre along with the other unions, SKM leaders emphasised that this was only because the government had invited the rogue Punjab union.
The police have named at least 10 farm leaders including Yogendra Yadav and Rakesh Tikait in the FIRs filed so far. Security has been tightened in several places across the national capital especially at the Red Fort and farmer protest sites, with the deployment of additional paramilitary forces following the violence. After the night fall, the Red Fort was secured, the “kisan flags” hoisted during violence on Tuesday were removed and protesters made to vacate the premises.
A day after the tractor parade on Republic Day by the protesting farmers on Delhi’s borders took a violent turn, the gathering at the protest site in Ghazipur thinned significantly on Wednesday.
It was from the Ghazipur site that a sizeable chunk of protesters first broke away on Tuesday from their designated route towards central Delhi. Navneet Singh, the farmer who died in the eventual melee, had been among the ones who left the Ghazipur site on Republic Day.
On Wednesday afternoon, however, the crowd had thinned out and the site seemed a lot quieter. Activities on the stage concluded around 1.45 pm after shraddhanjali (tribute) to the deceased protester, and the numbers, too, shrunk considerably thereafter.