NEW DELHI (AP) – Tens of thousands of farmers who stormed the historic Red Fort on Republic Day in India returned to camp outside the capital on Wednesday after the most volatile day of their two-month clash goes leaving one protester dead and more than 300 police officers injured.
Protests demanding the repeal of new agricultural laws have turned into a rebellion that is shaking the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Tuesday, more than 10,000 tractors and thousands more on foot or on horseback tried to advance toward the capital, pulling out barricades and buses blocking their passage and sometimes meeting with police using tear gas and cannon fire. water.
Its brief capture of the 17th-century fort, which was the palace of the Mughal emperors, represented Indian live news channels. The peasants, some carrying ceremonial swords, ropes and sticks, overwhelmed the police. In a deeply symbolic challenge to the Hindu nationalist government in Modi, protesters who stormed the Red Fort hoisted a Sikh religious flag.
“The situation is normal now. Protesters have taken to the streets of the capital, “New Delhi Police Officer Anto Alphonse said Wednesday morning.
Protesting farmers’ groups are scheduled to meet later Wednesday to discuss future action. Another march is scheduled for February 1, when the Modi government plans to present the annual budget to Parliament.
Protest organizer Samyukt Kisan Morcha, or United Peasants Front, accused two outside groups of sabotage by infiltrating their peaceful movement.
“Even if it was a sabotage, we cannot escape responsibility,” said Yogendra Yadav, leader of the protest.
Yadav said there had been accumulated frustration among protesting farmers and “how do you control it if the government doesn’t take seriously what they have been demanding for two months.”
Several roads were re-closed on Wednesday near the police headquarters and Connaught Place areas following the protest of some retired police officers from Delhi demanding the prosecution of farmers protesting the violence.
Political analyst Arti Jerath said Tuesday’s violence will put agricultural organizations behind it.
“The Supreme Court has said all along that farmers can continue the protest without harming life in New Delhi. Tuesday’s development has given the government a chance to go to the highest court and say that is precisely what he feared it would become violent. ”
Tuesday’s climb overshadowed Republic Day celebrations, including the annual military parade that was already shrinking due to the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities shut down some metro train stations and suspended mobile internet service in parts of the capital, a frequent tactic by the government to thwart protests.
Farmers – many of them Sikhs from the states of Punjab and Haryana – tried to leave for New Delhi in November, but were arrested by police. Since then, unperturbed by the winter cold and frequent rains, they have fallen on the outskirts of the city and threatened to besiege it if agricultural laws are not repealed.
Neeraja Choudhury, a political analyst, said the government did not anticipate what was to come and was not properly prepared for it. “If farmers are generally agitated in India, protests cannot be ruled out because some opposition incites farmers.”
Anil Kumar, a police spokesman, said more than 300 troops were injured in clashes with farmers. Several of them jumped into a deep, dry ditch in the fort area to escape the protesters who overtook them in various places.
Police said a protester died after his tractor overturned, but farmers said he was shot. Several bloodied protesters could be seen in the television footage.
Police said protesting farmers broke away from approved protest routes and resorted to “violence and vandalism.” Eight buses and 17 private vehicles were damaged, police said, which filed four cases of vandalism against protesters.
The government insists that the agricultural laws passed by Parliament in September will benefit farmers and boost production through private investment. But farmers fear it will become an agricultural enterprise and leave them behind. The government has offered to suspend the laws for 18 months, but farmers want nothing less than a total repeal.
Since returning to power for a second term, the Modi government has been shaken by several convulsions. The pandemic sent India’s economy into its first recession, the social dispute has widened and its government has been questioned over its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, the year he witnessed the first major protests against his administration, a diverse coalition of groups rallied against a controversial new citizenship law that they said discriminated against Muslims.
“The government has failed in national security. I think this government seems to be quite blinking at the kind of security challenges it creates by alienating minority, Muslim and Sikh communities, ”said Arti Jerath, a political analyst.
India is predominantly Hindu, while Muslims account for 14% and Sikhs for almost 2% of its nearly 1.4 billion people.