INDIAN POLICE USE TEAR GAS ON PROTESTING FARMERS AT PUNJAB-HARYANA BORDER

Tue 13 February 2024:

Indian security personnel used tear gas to disperse thousands of farmers protesting on New Delhi after negotiations with the administration failed.

“We do not want to break any barricades. We want resolution of our issues through dialogue. But if they [the government] do nothing then what will we do? It is our compulsion,” Sarwan Singh Pandher, a leader of one of the farmer groups, told reporters following the breakdown of talks.

Local broadcasters showed dense clouds of tear gas on Tuesday as police attempted to disperse protesters in Ambala, around 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital. Farmers are demanding that the government provide more assistance and guarantees.

Reports of farmers being detained by the Haryana police were also doing the rounds in the chaos. However, there is no official confirmation either from the farmers’ unions or the Haryana police about this yet. Farmers on a long cavalcade of over 3,000 tractor trailers were seen running helter-skelter to save themselves at the Shambu border, on the Punjab side. The Haryana police has also deployed drones to keep a watch and record the farmers’ protest.

Farmers could be seen covering their faces with clothes and masks to save themselves from the tear gas. The farmers a waiting for union leaders to reach the Shambu border, after which they will cross over to Delhi.

Police barricaded many entry points into New Delhi with barbed wire, spikes, and cement blocks. Large rallies in the capital have been banned and internet connectivity has been interrupted in some parts of the neighboring Haryana state.

Negotiations between union leaders and government ministers on Monday failed to produce consensus on the farmers’ key demands, which include higher support, guaranteed prices for their produce, and forgiveness for loans, as well as a clutch of other concessions.

Pandher claimed that the government, which three years ago had promised to double farmers’ income, had refused to make a decision on the demands.

Indian broadcasters showed columns of hundreds of tractors moving towards the capital from the surrounding states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Farmers in India have political heft due to their sheer numbers. The threat of renewed protests comes ahead of national elections that are likely to start in April.

Two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion people draw their livelihood from agriculture, accounting for nearly a fifth of the country’s GDP, according to government figures.

Thousands of Indian farmers die by suicide every year because of poverty, debt and crops affected by ever more erratic weather patterns caused by climate change.

The “Chalo Delhi” march echoes protests in 2021 when farmers breached barricades and marched into the city on Republic Day.

Tens of thousands of farmers then set up makeshift camps. At least 700 people were killed during the protest.

The pressure was such that Modi pushed through the repeal of three contentious laws that farmers claimed would let private companies control the country’s agriculture sector.

The government at that time said it would set up a panel of farmers and government officials to find ways to ensure support prices for all farm produce. Multiple meetings since then have made no progress.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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