Farmers' anger boils over in Delhi protest

The pomp of a military parade is a fixture for Republic Day in India's capital. On Tuesday, on its 72nd edition, angry farmers put on their own show when thousands streamed by tractor into New Delhi to secure a national audience for their fight against controversial farm laws.

Amid chaotic scenes, after the protesters broke through police barricades, a farmer was killed when his tractor overturned, and at least 83 police officers were injured.

Eish Singhal, a spokesman for Delhi's police force who gave the casualty figures, said officers fired tear gas during the clashes in an attempt to restore order.

Karori Singh, an emeritus fellow and former director of the South Asia Studies Centre at the University of Rajasthan, said the wild scenes took place despite the appeals of police and protest leaders for calm leading up to the long-flagged tractor rally.

Singh said the farmers, who had been camping outside Delhi for months in often-harsh winter weather, had been for the most part disciplined. But "some anti-social elements" might have infiltrated the tractor rally in order to create chaos and instigate violence, the academic said.

The farmers, in their monthslong campaign, have called attention to their demands for the repeal of three farm laws introduced last year by the government of Prime Narendra Modi. The farmers say the legislation will result in lower prices for their harvests under what the government calls much-needed market reforms.

On Tuesday, with no meaningful progress in talks between the parties, the farmers carried out their pledge of taking their protest into the heart of the nation's capital on a key national holiday.

The protesters deviated from agreed routes and stormed into the iconic Red Fort, where they hoisted a flag of the farm union.

"Modi will hear us now. He will have to hear us now," said Sukhdev Singh, 55, a farmer from the northern breadbasket state of Punjab, as he marched past the barricades.

Tight security

Police had imposed tight security in place, including with overhead drones, but they were vastly outnumbered. Clashes took place near the old Delhi Police headquarters and inside the Mughal-era Red Fort.

Authorities had blocked traffic on some roads and closed metro stations. Even mobile internet services were suspended in parts of Delhi as the unrest built up.

At around 1 pm, police fired tear gas in a bid to stop the farmers from marching toward the India Gate in central Delhi. The police action prompted violence from some farmers. Police as well as protesters suffered injuries when stones were hurled during the running battles.

By late evening, police removed the protesters from the Red Fort and the main roads. The protesters returned to the districts of Tirki and Singhu, the home base of the protests since Nov 26. Eleven rounds of talks between protesting farmers and the federal government had failed to end the stalemate.

Most New Delhi roads were reopened by midnight on Tuesday. On Wednesday, hundreds of police guarded the Red Fort.

On the eve of the Republic Day, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind said: "Every Indian salutes our farmers, who have made our vast and populous country self-reliant in food-grains and dairy products. Despite adversities of nature, numerous other challenges and the COVID pandemic, our farmers sustained the agricultural production. A grateful nation is fully committed to the welfare of our farmers."

On Wednesday morning, New Delhi police officer Anto Alphonse said: "The situation is normal now. The protesters have left the streets of the capital."

Joint Farmers' Front, an umbrella organization representing more than 40 farmers' unions, condemned those who had taken part in the clashes and said that "antisocial elements had infiltrated the otherwise peaceful movement".

Mahesh Rangarajan, a historian at Ashoka University in Haryana, said farmers' anger reflects a "larger crisis of stagnating incomes in states such as Punjab and Haryana".

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.

Aparajit Chakraborty is a freelance journalist for China Daily.