Iron nails, sticks, barbed wire, rocks and improvised walls are used to block Delhi’s borders against thousands of protesting farmers.
The tightened security – which some farmers call ‘warlike’ – comes amid a tense disagreement with the government over new agricultural laws.
The protest, which is now in its third month, presents the biggest challenge facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
His government has offered to suspend the laws, but farmers want them repealed.
Things got violent last week when protesters and police clashed after thousands of farmers entered Delhi as part of a massive tractor march. Dozens of officers were injured and one protester was killed. Boer groups and trade union leaders condemned the violence, but said they would not stop the protest.
Instead, they plan to block highways leading to the national capital on Saturday. Meanwhile, the situation at the protest sites – Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri – gradually deteriorated.
Delhi and the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh deployed officers and drones on the sites and began blocking the area around the protests, effectively cutting off farmers from roads leading to the city.
Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava defended the barrier. “I am surprised that the police were attacked and tractors were broken on January 26, when no tractors were used, no questions were raised,” he told ANI.
“What have we done now? We have only strengthened the barrier so that it is not broken again”.
At the Delhi-Haryana border, police officers blocked roads with large concrete slabs and embedded large iron nails across the width of the road to the Tikri protest area.
Anoop Chanaut, a member of the Kisan (Farmer) Social Army, told BBC Hindi that the government says we are just a call. ‘But then they install barrier as if it were an international border.
“We are sitting quietly in front of us and we will continue to sit. But if we want to continue to surround parliament, these barriers will not stop us,” farmers told BBC Hindi.
Many on social media compare the warlike fortifications on the protest sites to fencing on international borders. #FencinglikeChinaPak has risen to the top of twitter trends in India as many have commented on the excessive use of security equipment by police officers.
The fortified camps set up by police and paramilitary outside Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur remind me of the Roman camps outside Asterix’s town. We all knew who won every confrontation between the untamed Gauls and the Roman army 😄 # FarmersProtest #Asterix pic.twitter.com/jMzcRcTAzO
– Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) 2 February 2021
The protest site at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh (UP) border has been greatly strengthened since Sunday night. All roads going from UP to Delhi are closed. Even the sidewalks and sidewalks are blocked.
Spools of razor wire, heavy metal barrier, low stones and rows of concrete barriers lie along the main roads in Ghazipur and Singhu.
Barbed wire coils and concrete slabs block the roads here. Like Tikri, nails were also erected on the Ghazipur border.
Nail strips could have been removed adequately and more easily. It seems like the police do not expect the road to open soon, or that it’s just psychic war? https://t.co/2EtJyixTCP
– KC Singh (@ambkcsingh) 2 February 2021
Police officers at the protest site told the BBC that they had been instructed to step up security there. Farmers say the police have taken these measures so that the number of tents on the premises does not increase.
BBC Hindi’s Samiratmaj Mishra reported that an ambulance had to turn around due to the heavy barbed wire barrier and concrete blocks.
Monday night, concrete was poured between stone barriers to hold it in place. Interchange rows of metal and stone barriers cross the highway.
On Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, videos and photos from the protest sites were shared amid outrage at what many people see as security security.
Barrier on the Singhu border extends up to 2 km on Delhi side. The road was excavated. Selected vehicles may go beyond the barrier, but media vehicles may not enter. All routes are blocked.
A farmer’s leader on the Singhu website told BBC Hindi that “the Modi government is building a wall on the border between Delhi and Haryana, as announced by Trump on the US and Mexico border”.
Farmers’ leaders have told BBC Hindi that if the government wants to negotiate, it must first create an atmosphere of dialogue.
“The government is taking all inhumane steps. This includes cutting off electricity, turning off water and turning off the internet. Now the government is blocking it. It must stop immediately.”