The farmer union leader vows unity of protesters after the Republic Day events
For months, government spokespersons and a section of the media were looking for a leader among the consortium of more than three dozen farmer unions protesting against the farm laws. On the night of January 28, they finally found one in Rakesh Tikait, the national spokesperson of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, who broke down before the media, alleging that there’s a “conspiracy against farmers”.
His critics might call his emotional outburst a smart political move but Rakesh Tikait, the second son of Mahendra Singh Tikait, the mercurial farmer leader who revived the BKU in the late 1980s with a string of dramatic protests in Muzaffarnagar and Meerut against the then Congress government, provided a new spark with his tears and tenacity to the dying embers at the Ghazipur border protest site. Till January 28, the BKU was just playing a supporting role at Singhu and Tikri.
Farmers’ protests | Ghazipur quiet after faultlines emerge between farm groups
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There is a competition to garner the leadership of the protest, alleges RKMS’ V.M. Singh
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There is a competition to garner the leadership of the protest, alleges RKMS’ V.M. Singh
The Ghazipur protest site on the Delhi Meerut Expressway was unusually quiet on Wednesday evening, after fissures emerged between farm groups over incidents of violence in Delhi on Republic Day.
V.M. Singh of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (RKMS) declared that his organisation was withdrawing from the protest after the violence on Tuesday. “The protest deviated from the agenda on Republic Day. We were not supposed to go to Red Fort and unfurl a religious flag that is meant to be hoisted on gurudwaras,” he told reporters.
The BKU group at Ghazipur said it wanted the parade to go down NH-9 and take a U-turn from Akshardham back towards Anand Vihar and from there to the Apsara border
GHAZIABAD: Farmers’ outfits protesting at the UP-Delhi borders, including several factions of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) pressed for a route change to their Republic Day tractor parade all of Monday and met several police and senior local administration officials to be allowed to go up to Akshardham.
The demand took officials by surprise because the parade routes from the Chilla and Ghazipur borders, which the outfits sought a change to, were finalised on Sunday after talks with Delhi Police. However, through Monday, representatives of the unions insisted on taking the tractors towards Akshardham from Ghazipur and Chilla. The approved route from Ghazipur is towards the Apsara border and Hapur Road.
How the farmers’ protest lost its way
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The jury is out on whether the farmers reached the Red Fort by mistake
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The jury is out on whether the farmers reached the Red Fort by mistake
There are different interpretations of the chaotic events that unfolded in parts of Delhi on Republic Day as farmers who have been camped at the Ghazipur border for over two months now, entered the city, apparently in violation of agreements between police and farm union leaders.
While some observers said the young farmers lost their way on the Delhi-Meerut expressway in the absence of any barricades, others said the idea of going to the Red Fort has been brewing for some time among the younger protesters who grabbed the chance presented to them. Others also point out that a section of farmers, tired and restless of waiting at the border for more than 60 days now, wanted to make a larger point which the leadership failed to take into account.
Farmers’ protests | Tractor rally turns violent as farmers enter Capital
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January 26, 2021 23:10 IST
Clashes erupt as police use tear gas, lathi charge to control protesters; violence leaves one protester dead and 83 police personnel injured; Union Home Ministry suspends mobile Internet services, deploys paramilitary forces.
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Protesters hoist flags on the flagpole at the ramparts of the Red Fort during the farmers’ tractor rally in New Delhi on January 26, 2021.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Clashes erupt as police use tear gas, lathi charge to control protesters; violence leaves one protester dead and 83 police personnel injured; Union Home Ministry suspends mobile Internet services, deploys paramilitary forces.