Protesters Throw Barricades Off Bridge, Cops Use Water Cannon! CM Kejriwal Criticizes The Haryana Government’s Decision
Haryana erected road barricades at the border with Punjab on the highway to Delhi, as farmers amassed for the planned ‘Dilli Chalo‘ march on Thursday in order to protest the center’s new farm laws.
In a sharp escalation, even since the showdown was witnessed the day before, the police and farmers clashed over a river bridge.
As farmers gathered, the police deployed road barricades and fired water cannons. However, as the protesters picked up one of the metal barricades and threw it off the bridge, matters quickly moved up a notch. When they moved to another road barricade, the police flung tear gas.
However, the crowd responded by lobbing the entire road barricades down the bridge. After that, when the police used lathis, demonstrators outnumbered the law enforcement tried to move large trucks and tractors parked on the bridge as the next level of road barricading. The showdown is still ongoing at the time of release.
Delhi CM Kejriwal Criticized The Decision Of Haryana Government–to Prevent Farmers From Protesting
केंद्र सरकार के तीनों खेती बिल किसान विरोधी हैं। ये बिल वापिस लेने की बजाय किसानों को शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शन करने से रोका जा रहा है, उन पर वॉटर कैनन चलाई जा रही हैं। किसानों पर ये जुर्म बिलकुल ग़लत है। शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शन उनका संवैधानिक अधिकार है।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 26, 2020
Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister, criticized the decision of the Haryana government to prevent farmers from protesting.
Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi: All the 3 farming bills of the central government are anti-farmer. ‘Instead of withdrawing the Farm Bills, farmers are being prevented from holding a peaceful demonstration, water cannon being used on them. This is absolutely wrong. Holding a peaceful demonstration is a constitutional right’.
On Wednesday, the Police of Haryana used “water cannons” at least twice to disperse demonstrators and stop them from going to Delhi.
The authorities of Haryana also imposed prohibitions in some areas of the state under Section 144 of the CrPC to prevent demonstrators from gathering.
The police remain vigilant to farmers with drones. Farmers’ groups say they will hold a rally(dharna) whenever they stop moving to the national capital.
The march to Delhi was called as Punjab farmers lifted a several weeks rail siege for 15 days to allow the entry of essential items. The central government has called the farmers who want the repeal of the farm laws for the 2nd round of negotiations on December 3rd, 2020.
In Punjab, farmers staged several protests against the three new farm laws passed by the central government in September this year.
Parliament passed the three farm bills. The bills are the Promotion and Facilitation Bill, 2020 (the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce), the Empowerment and Protection (Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services) Bill, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. These bills took effect from September 27 after President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent.
The Indian government stated that the farm laws will provide farmers with better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture.
Protesting farmers have expressed their concern that the Centre’s farm laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support value system, and put them at the mercy of big corporates or business magnates.
Several opposition parties have called these laws the anti-farmer.
