Violent tractor rally leaves 300 police personnel injured
28 Jan 2021
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At least 300 police personnel were injures in the violence let loose by protestors in the name of tractor rally in the national capital on Republic Day. Protestors targeted police with sticks and other crude weapons and even tried to run over them with their tractors.
Clashes broke out at several places, including Red Fort and ITO, Mukarba Chowk, Nangloi and other areas as protestors removed all barricades to enter uncharted routes in defiance of authority.
The Delhi Police have arrested 200 people in connection with the violence, and 22 FIRs have been filed so far. Police have also detained over 300 people in connection with Tuesday’s violence at several places in Delhi.
A protesting also died near the ITO metro station after his tractor overturned on Tuesday.
At least two kissan organisation announced their decision to dissociate with the joint front of farmers organisations saying they disapproved of all that happened in Delhi that marred the Republic Day spirit
Extra paramilitary forces are likely to be deployed in Delhi after union home minister Amit Shah reviewed the situation.
Police had to use batons and teargas shells to bring the violence under control, Internet had also been suspended in various parts of Delhi-NCR as violence erupted.
“Those who indulged in violence will have to pay for their deeds,” said a farmer leader.
Farmer leaders on Wednesday, 27 February, condemned the violence that took place in Delhi during the tractor rally on Republic Day.
"Those who indulged in violence and unfurled flags at Red Fort will have to pay for their deeds. For the last two months, a conspiracy is going on against a particular community. This is not a movement of Sikhs, but farmers," Bharatiya Kisan Union's Rakesh Tikait was quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee's SS Pandher reportedly said, "Some miscreants joined the protest to defame the farmers' movement. We did not plan to unfurl the flags at Red Fort, this was not our program. Deep Sidhu's photo with the PM has floated, we had already expressed doubt over him."
The siege on the Red Fort and violence on capital’s roads during the tractor parade on Tuesday, have led to divisions in the farm unions front with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee and the BKU (Bhanu Pratap Singh group) quitting the protests and announcing their own plans to struggle for justice.
AIKSCC chief VM Singh and BKU Bhanu’s Bhanu Pratap Singh today addressed a press conference to announce that their organisations were withdrawing from the ongoing farmers’ protests which had lost the legitimacy and the moral authority to continue after what happened yesterday.
Asked if the entire AIKSCC was dissociating from protests, VM Singh said he was dissociating as the national president of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (RKMS). VM Singh said his organisation will leave the Ghazipur protest site.
Both AIKSCC and BKU (Bhanu) are Uttar Pradesh based organisations.
Singh attacked BKU’s Rakesh Tikait for admitting to inciting violence and asking supporters to carry batons, sticks and flags to the parade besides breaking barricades yesterday and said, “We have not joined this agitation for people to die. The farmers are not here to do what we saw yesterday. They are not agitating for someone to become a political leader.”
Singh asked whether BKU’s Rakesh Tikait who has attended all 10 dialogues with the government ever raised the concerns of sugarcane farmers with the Centre.
Singh also slammed Tikait for breaking barricades asking, “Why did they start early for the parade?”
Singh added, “Whoever has done the wrong yesterday needs to be acted against. Ours is an agriculture dominated nation. Our agitation will continue but not in the current form. We cannot run the agitation with those who have their own separate roads and plans. We are withdrawing from the agitation,” VM Singh said.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, meanwhile, said VM Singh has been removed from post of convener of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) a month ago.
Reports also said most farmers have returned home from Ghazipur and that the number of tractors there have come down to around 150-200. Earlier, where there were around 3,000 tractors.
BKU president Naresh Tikait had returned to Muzaffarnagar yesterday itself, they added. Traffic is smooth on the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi highway.
However, Rakesh Tikait has refused to go back saying that he plans to stay put till the end of the agitation.
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