The Farm-Bill protests: What happens now ?
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The Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan and Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu), the two most prominent farmer unions opposing the farm laws, call off their protest. They have separated themselves from all the ongoing protests at the Delhi border, a day after the protest took a violent turn on India’s 72th Republic Day celebrations. So far according to PTI, the Delhi Police has detained 200 people in connection with the violence.
The police have filed 22 FIRs so far mentioning names of at least 10 farm leaders, including Yogendra Yadav and Rakesh Tikait. Security has been tightened in several places across the national capital especially at the Red Fort, with the deployment of additional paramilitary forces following the violence.
The Supreme Court has put a stay for 18-months on the controversial Farm Bills. The Modi government has offered to hold back on them until further notice from the court. It regardless led to a few people from the crowd to take law into their own hands and act against it. One protester has been reported dead after the chaos created. Such disruption usually leads to fragmentation amongst various unions and groups that were part of this protest.
It definitely has damaged the farmers more than helping their cause. It also shadows the genuine issues that the farmers have been pushing for the past 2 months. Despite strict actions being promised by the Delhi Police, we will have to wait to find out about the people responsible for the red-fort incident. The future of the protests and the discussion between the Unions and the Central Govt. heavily depends on the findings of the investigation.
V M Singh, the leader of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan leader said, “The farmers’ movement will continue for as long as the issue of MSP guarantee stands but not in this way. We have not come here for people to be martyred or to get them beaten up. We can’t support taking forward the movement with people who want to take it in another direction”.
