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What was supposed to have been a peaceful show of protest by the farmers on Republic Day, turned into a day of violence, rioting and damage to public property. One farmer driving a tractor was killed in an accident while many of them, including Delhi Police personnel sustained injuries. The protest rally was supposed to commence only from 12 noon till 5 p.m. but it began at around 8 am – way ahead of the designated time and agreed routes. Further, the protestors deviated from the pre-designated routes, as agreed upon in advance by the Delhi Police and farmer leaders. The protesting farmers reached Delhi’s Indraprastha, ITO and other parts of Central Delhi after breaking barricades at the Ghazipur and Tikri borders early Tuesday morning. Farmers unions and government have held eleven rounds of talks but the government is not willing to concede to the demand for total repeal of the three farm laws. The government had instead offered to keep the laws in abeyance for one or one and half years. However, the farmers were unwilling to water down their demand for repeal of the three “black laws” and legal guarantee of the government for minimum support price (MSP) of their crops. The farmers unions have been camping on the outskirts of Delhi for over two months demanding nothing short of repeal of the three controversial farm laws which the Modi government hastily passed in parliament without debates or consultation with stake holders. As far as negotiations with the government are concerned, the agenda of the farmers is to focus the discussions only on ways in which the new laws can be scrapped. The government has, however, refused to roll back the pro-reform laws farmers saying it will hurt their livelihoods. On Republic Day, hundreds of farmers entered the Red Fort, and scaled the monument’s walls and hoisted a flag associated with Sikhism as armed police in riot gear looked on. The Supreme Court had on January 12 ordered to keep the three laws in abeyance and ordered the formation of a committee, but its intervention backfired as farmer unions alleged that the panel is “pro-government”. From the beginning when the government decided to dig its heels against the farmers, it was clear that a confrontation was imminent. The violence that took place on Republic Day confirmed that some trouble makers were less bothered about the issue and more intent on creating mayhem. As things stand, two farmers unions have withdrawn from the rally in protest against the violence unleashed. The Modi government, which was on the back foot over the farmers issue, can now take the high moral ground. The clashes also exposed the ineffectiveness of the Delhi Police, which is under the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA). Delhi Police came under scanner for failing to prevent violence on February 25,2020 during anti-CAA protests. On Republic Day, Delhi Police failed to respond when barricades were brought down by protestors. Ultimately, the biggest losers are the farmers, who had braved freezing temperatures in the open for over two months and winning the support of people. Violence on Republic Day has indeed taken the shine off the farmers’ just demands and boosted the government’s rigid stand over the farm laws. It remains to be seen whether farmers will finally blink or remain ever determined for repeal of the laws.<\/p>\n
Farmers under focus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}