NEW DELHI (AP) – Tens of thousands of farmers who stormed the historic Red Fort on India’s Indian Republic Day were camped outside the capital again on Wednesday after the most erratic day of their two-month casualties killed one protester and injured more than 300 police officers. .
The protests demanding the repeal of new agricultural laws have grown into a rebellion that the government, Narendra Modi, is fighting. On Tuesday, more than 10,000 tractors and thousands of people on foot or horseback tried to make their way to the capital, pushing aside barricades and buses blocking their way and sometimes being met by police with tear gas and water cannons.
Their brief takeover of the 17th-century fort, which was the palace of Mughal emperors, played out lively Indian news channels. The farmers, some with ceremonial swords, ropes and sticks, overwhelmed the police. In a deeply symbolic challenge to Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, the protesters who stormed the Red Fort hoisted a Sikh religious flag.
“The situation is now normal. The protesters left the streets of the capital, Anto Alphonse, a New Delhi police officer, said on Wednesday morning.
The protesting farmers’ groups are due to meet later Wednesday to discuss future action. Another march is planned for February 1 when the Modi government is due to present the annual budget in parliament.
Protest organizer Samyukt Kisan Morcha, of United Farmers’ Front, accused two outside groups of sabotaging by infiltrating their otherwise peaceful movement.
“Even if it was a sabotage, we can not escape responsibility,” said Yogendra Yadav, a protest leader.
Yadav said frustration had built up among the protesting farmers and “how do you control it if the government is not serious about what they have been demanding for two months.”
Several roads were closed again on Wednesday near police headquarters and Connaught Place areas after a protest by some retired police officers from Delhi demanding prosecution of the protesting farmers who are engaged in violence, the news agency Press Trust of India said.
Political analyst Arti Jerath said the violence would put farmers’ organizations on their back foot on Tuesday.
‘The Supreme Court has consistently said that the farmers can continue the protest without disrupting life in New Delhi. Tuesday’s development gave the government a chance to go to the high court and say this is exactly what it feared would become violent. ”
Tuesday’s escalation overshadowed Republic Day celebrations, including the annual military parade already scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities closed some metro stations, and mobile internet services were suspended in some parts of the capital, which the government regularly used to stop protests.
The farmers – many of them Sikhs from Punjab and Haryana states – tried to move to New Delhi in November, but were stopped by police. Since then, they have languished on the outskirts of the city under the winter cold and frequent rains, threatening to besiege it if the farm laws are not repealed.
Neeraja Choudhury, a political analyst, said the government could not expect what was to come, and had adequately prepared for it. “If the farmers in India are excited, you cannot dismiss the protests as an opposition inciting the farmers.”
Anil Kumar, a police spokesperson, said more than 300 police personnel were injured in clashes with farmers. Several of them jumped into a deep dry drain in the fort area to escape the protesters who were in several places less than them.
Police said one protester was killed after his tractor overturned, but farmers said he was shot. Several bloodied protesters could be seen in television footage.
Police said the protesting farmers away from the approved protest routes and violence and vandalism use. Eight buses and 17 private vehicles were damaged, police said. They filed four cases of vandalism against the protesters.
The government insists that the agricultural laws passed by Parliament in September will benefit farmers and increase production through private investment. But the farmers fear that it will make agricultural businesses and leave them behind. The government has offered to suspend the laws for 18 months, but the farmers want nothing less than a complete repeal.
Since coming back to power for a second term, Modi’s government has been shocked by several convulsions. The pandemic sent the economy already shaking India into its very first recession, social disputes escalated and his government was questioned about its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, the year that saw the first major protests against his administration, a diverse coalition of groups rallied against a controversial new citizenship law that, according to Muslims, discriminates.
“The government on the national security front has failed. “I think this government seems to be quite frustrated by the kind of security challenges it is creating for itself by alienating minority communities, Muslims and Sikhs,” said Arti Jerath, a political analyst.
India is predominantly Hindu, while Muslims make up 14% and Sikhs almost 2% of the nearly 1.4 billion people.