NEW DELHI – Thousands of protesting farmers flocked to the Indian capital of New Delhi on Tuesday as their tractors pulled barricades apart, caused police to fire tear gas and marked a chaotic start to an event that had already been classified as direct Challenge to the government.
The protest against India’s new farm laws was due to begin at 12:00 noon local time to avoid disruption to the celebrations commemorating the holiday of the Republic of India in central Delhi. But the peasants began dismantling barricades about two hours earlier, amid some apparent confusion among protesters.
The protest had already threatened to stage the 72nd annual celebration of the beginning of the Indian constitution. Prime Minister Narendra Modi oversaw a lavish armed forces parade, but news channels showed surreal scenes of Mr Modi saluting officers while chaos erupted in parts of the city just a few kilometers away.
On the city’s border with the village of Ghazipur, where farmers have been camping in protest for months, tractors removed a shipping container that was blocking their route when the police stood by helplessly. Elsewhere, thick clouds of tear gas rose over approved marching routes as farmers on tractors, horses, and on foot violently began their rally lessons prematurely.
The farmers waved flags and mocked police officers, as TV news showed. Many carried long swords, tridents, sharp daggers, and battle axes – working, if largely ceremonial, weapons.
Indian television news showed smaller groups breaking off the approved routes, tipping over buses and violently clashing with overwhelmed police officers armed with bamboo sticks as they marched towards central Delhi. In the early afternoon, the Delhi police commanders had deployed officers with assault rifles. They stood in the middle of key streets and stared at the demonstrators with rifles pointed at the crowd.
Even so, the majority of the demonstrators stuck to the approved routes and avoided the city center. At one of the capital’s largest intersections, near the Indian Supreme Court in the heart of Delhi, farmers withdrew with tractors after police fired several volleys of tear gas.
“Once we make it in Delhi, we won’t be going anywhere until Modi repeals the law,” said Happy Sharma, a farmer from the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, who was among 27 people riding a tractor truck.
The demonstration, after the central government failed in its desperate efforts to prevent the tractor march, dramatically showed how deeply the impasse with the farmers embarrassed Mr. Modi. Although he has emerged as India’s most dominant figure after his political opposition was crushed, the peasants have been tenaciously defiant.
In September, Mr Modi went through three parliamentary agriculture bills that he hopes will bring private investment into a sector that has been plagued by inefficiency and lack of money for decades. But farmers quickly stood up and said the government’s relaxation of regulations left them to the corporate giants who would take over their businesses.
As their protests grew in size and anger, and tens of thousands of farmers camped in the cold for two months and dozens of them died, the government has offered to amend some parts of the law to meet their demands. The country’s Supreme Court also stepped in and ordered the government to suspend the laws pending an agreement with farmers.
But the farmers say they will not stand in front of a lift, and they have started putting on the pressure. In addition to their tractor protest on Tuesday, they announced plans to march on foot to India’s parliament on February 1, when the country’s new budget is presented.
Tensions were high until Tuesday. Some officials claimed the protests had been infiltrated by insurgent elements who would resort to violence if the peasants could enter the city. Just days earlier, the peasant leaders brought before the media a young man whom they had allegedly arrested on suspicion of a conspiracy to shoot the leaders on Tuesday to disrupt the rally. None of the claims could be independently verified.
There was some confusion about the scope and size of the tractor march before it should begin. Reports in local media quoting Delhi police documents said the march would not begin until after the high-profile Republic Day parade in the heart of New Delhi culminated. The reports also say that the number of tractors and the length of their stay in the city were limited.
However, at a press conference on Monday, the farm managers said there are no time limits or restrictions on the number of tractors as long as they stick to the routes set by the Delhi police. Maps of the routes indicated a compromise between the farmers and the police, which could enable the demonstrators to enter the city but not to get near sensitive institutions of power.
The leaders said that about 150,000 tractors had been gathered at the borders of the capital for the march, that about 3,000 volunteers were trying to help the police keep order, and that 100 ambulances were on standby.
The farm leaders made statements to the demonstrators and repeatedly appealed for peace during the press conference.
“Remember, our aim is not to conquer Delhi, but to win the hearts of the people in this country,” read online instructions for protesters who were told not to carry weapons – “not even sticks “- and to avoid provocative slogans and banners.
“The hallmark of this agitation was that it was peaceful,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, one of the movement’s main leaders. “My request to our peasant brothers and to our youth is that they keep this movement peaceful. The government is spreading rumors that the authorities have begun to mislead people. Be careful of that.
“If we stay peaceful, we have won. If we get violent, Modi will win. “
Jeffrey Gettleman and Hari Kumar contributed to the coverage.
