Farmers on Friday suspended their Delhi March for a day after the Haryana police prevented them from crossing the Shambhu border. The high voltage drama unfolded around 1pm when a group of 101 farmers started their Delhi March and tried to cross the multi-layered barricading put up by the police.
The police used tear-gas and mild force to disperse the farmers when they were trying to remove barricades, leading to minor injuries to around 10 farmers. The Haryana Police asked farmers not to proceed further and cited a prohibitory order clamped under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
After the repeated attempts the farmers failed to cross the barricades, farmer leader Sarvan Singh Pandher announced that protest march is suspended and the farmers were called back to the camps. According to reports, the farmers will wait for the response of Union Government to resume talks with the farmer leaders and they will hold another meeting on December 8 to take the next call.
“We will wait till tomorrow (Saturday) for talks with the government, otherwise, a ‘Jattha’ of 101 farmers will march towards Delhi on 8 December at 12 noon. If the government wants to resume talks they can send an invite to us by tomorrow evening,” said Pandher during an interaction with media persons.
He said the Haryana police should not stop the farmers as it is right of the farmers to hold peaceful protest and meet representatives of the elected government. “Why is the government treating us as if we belong to an enemy nation? We are citizens of this country and have made immense sacrifices for its welfare”, said Pandher. “The entire world witnessed how the fifth-largest economy in the world inflicted atrocities and injured our farmer leaders. This is the moral victory of the farmers’ protest. Prime Minister Modi has no justification for why we are being prevented from moving forward peacefully,” he said.
Pandher, however, said farmers were ready to resume talks with the government.
“If the talks had commenced, a positive resolution to this movement could have been achieved. However, the government remains unwilling to engage in dialogue”, he said adding that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have listened to the Vice President also.
Hours before the farmers were planning to launch their Delhi March, the Haryana police have tightened the security at the Sambhu border on the NH 44. The Haryana government had also suspended mobile internet and bulk SMS service in 11 villages of Ambala district till December 9. The farmers led by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have given the call to launch the Delhi March to force the Centre for a legal guarantee for minimum support price for crops.
The talks with the farmers were suspended on February 18 after their last meeting with group of ministers remained inconclusive. They have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces. Meanwhile, Haryana, Home Secretary Sumita Misra said that the farmers were not given permission by the Delhi police and the farmers should avoid taking out the protest march. She has advised the farmer leaders to hold talks with the committee of experts formed by the supreme court to resolve the issues of the farmers.
