Thousands of farmers protesting against the three farm laws breached barricades and clashed on Tuesday with police in the capital, who fired tear gas to restrain them, shortly after a convoy of tractors trundled through the city’s outskirts.
The farmers began their first of a kind tractor parade in Delhi much before the time they were granted permission by Delhi Police for the event. The protesting unions have also announced a foot march to Parliament on February 1, when the annual Budget is presented, to press for their demands including a repeal of the three agriculture laws.
Amid the chaos, here are nine important questions that have been raised on violent farmer’s agitation on January 26.
1) Why did the police open the barricades at Singhu at 5 am on the 26th, When the decided the time of the match was at 10 am? (5 am - Time When Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana Depart from Singhu along with their supporters)
2) Why did the police not stop the farmers from deviating at the first deviation? The way they did at ITO?
3) Why did cops open the door to Red Fort Complex for farmers to enter?
4) Why were the cops seen relaxing and sitting in hundreds at the Red Fort lawns when the Khalsa flag was being hosted? They could easily have outnumbered the mob the way they did minutes later.
5) Why did Deep Sidhu stop a farmer from hoisting the Tiranga along with the Khalsa and Farmer flag? If Tiranga was also hoisted - the Media would have not painted the agitation as Khalistani agitation.
6) How did Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana vanish before the brutal Lathi Charge at Red Fort?
7) Why did the farmer leaders not intervene immediately when the deviation took place?
8) Why did the Farmer Leaders not make a public appeal immediately by calling a Press Conference when the deviation took place at 11 am?
9) Why did the farmer leaders not inform Delhi Media by doing a PC about the trouble makers Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana in advance? They were being advised to do so for a month now. On January 25 - top farmer leaders were advised to ensure no violence takes place and specifically named these two persons.
What is happening and what are the three laws?*
Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several Delhi border points since November 28, demanding a repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price for their crops.
Enacted in September last year, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.
However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP (minimum support price) and do away with the "mandi" (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
