NEW DELHI (AP) – Tens of thousands of farmers who stormed the historic Red Fort on Republic Day were again camped outside the capital on Wednesday after the most volatile day in their two-month waiting period left a dead protester and more than 300 wounded police officers.
Protests calling for the repeal of new agricultural laws have turned into a rebellion that shakes the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Tuesday, more than 10,000 tractors and thousands of people on foot or on horseback tried to advance into the capital, removing barricades and buses blocking their path and sometimes encountered by police using tear gas and water cannons.
A brief takeover of the 17th-century fort, which was the palace of the Mughal emperors, played live Indian news channels. Farmers, some carrying ceremonial swords, ropes and sticks, overwhelmed police. In a deeply symbolic challenge to Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, protesters who stormed the Red Fort hoisted a Sikh religious flag.
“The situation is normal now. Protesters have left the streets of the capital, “New Delhi Police Officer Anto Alphonse said Wednesday morning.
Protesting groups of farmers are scheduled to meet later Wednesday to discuss future action. Another march is scheduled for February 1, when the Modi government is scheduled to present its annual budget to Parliament.
Protest organizer Samyukt Kisan Morcha, or United Farmers Front, accused two outside groups of sabotage by infiltrating their otherwise peaceful movement.
“Even if it was sabotage, we cannot escape responsibility,” said Yogendra Yadav, a protest leader.
Yadav said frustration had built up among protesting farmers and “how do you control it if the government is not serious about what they have been asking for for two months”.
Several roads were closed again on Wednesday near police headquarters and the Connaught Place area following a protest by retired police officers in Delhi demanding the prosecution of protesting farmers who engaged in violence, the news agency said. press Press Trust of India.
Political analyst Arti Jerath said Tuesday’s violence would put farmers’ organizations on their feet.
“The Supreme Court has always said that farmers can continue the protest without disturbing life in New Delhi. Tuesday’s development gave the government an urge to go to the top court and say that this was exactly what he feared would become violent. ”
Tuesday’s escalation overshadowed Republic Day holidays, including the annual military parade, which has already been reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities closed some subway stations, and mobile internet service was suspended in parts of the capital, a frequent tactic of the government to counter protests.
Farmers – many of them Sikhs from Punjab and Haryana – tried to go to New Delhi in November, but were stopped by police. Since then, dissatisfied with the winter cold and frequent rains, they have scattered on the outskirts of the city and threatened to besiege it if the farm’s laws are not repealed.
Neeraja Choudhury, a political analyst, said the government had failed to anticipate what was to come and to prepare for it properly. “If farmers are generally agitated in India, you cannot reject protests as oppositions that incite farmers.”
Anil Kumar, a police spokesman, said more than 300 police officers were injured in clashes with farmers. A few of them jumped in a deep dry drain from the fort area to get rid of the protesters who overtook them in several places.
Police said a protester died after he overturned his tractor, but farmers said he was shot. Several bloody protesters could be seen in the television footage.
Police said Protestant farmers broke away from approved protest routes and resorted to “violence and vandalism.” Eight buses and 17 private vehicles were damaged, said police, who filed four vandalism cases against the protesters.
The government insists that agricultural laws passed by parliament in September will benefit farmers and boost production through private investment. But farmers fear it will turn farms and leave them behind. The government has offered to suspend the laws for 18 months, but farmers want nothing less than a complete repeal.
Since returning to power for a second term, Modi’s government has been shaken by several convulsions. The pandemic has sent India’s economy, which is already raging, in its first recession, social conflicts have spread and its government has been questioned about its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, the year that saw the first major protests against his administration, a diverse coalition of groups rallied against a controversial new citizens’ law that they said discriminated against Muslims.
“The government on the front of national security has failed. I think this government seems to be quite intermittent on the kind of security challenges it creates by alienating minority communities, Muslims and Sikhs, “said Arti Jerath, a political analyst.
India is predominantly Hindu, while Muslims make up 14% and Sikhs nearly 2% of the nearly 1.4 billion people.