Farmers held in MP released after Karnataka CM intervenes

Nearly 70 Karnataka farmers were detained in Bhopal during the “Delhi Chalo” protest march on Sunday

Nearly 70 Karnataka farmers, who were detained in Bhopal during the “Delhi Chalo” protest march, were released on Thursday, hours after chief minister Siddaramaiah approached his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Mohan Yadav over the matter. The MP police, however, maintained that the accused were in “police protection” and “free to go anywhere”.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah approached his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Mohan Yadav over the matter on Thursday. (ANI)

Several farmer associations, mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, had called for a march on February 13 as part of their ‘Delhi Chalo’ mission to demand a law guaranteeing MSP for their produce, the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstating of the Land Acquisition Act 2013, withdrawal from the World Trade Organisation, and compensation for families of farmers died during the previous agitation.

On Sunday, a group of farmers from Karnataka were travelling from Bengaluru to Delhi to participate in the protest against the central government were detained in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, sparking condemnation from various quarters, with Siddaramaiah earlier accusing the BJP-led central government of unfairly targeting farmers.

On Thursday, the Karnataka CM wrote a letter to his MP counterpart, saying: “A group of Karnataka farmers travelling from Bangalore to Delhi to participate in a protest against the anti-farmer policies of the Central Govt have been detained in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh without any reason. It has been four days since farmers have been detained and have not been released. It is now learnt that your Police Authorities are shifting them to Varanasi.”

Calling the incident “highly unfortunate”, he said: “Travelling to Delhi to participate in a peaceful protest is the Constitutional right of the people. It is highly unfortunate that farmers seeking better policies are being arrested and ill-treated by Police Authorities in Madhya Pradesh.”

Parashumram Yettinagudda, a representative of the Karnataka Farmers Federation, recounted the ordeal, saying that the group was transported to the Madhya Pradesh border without an explanation and later left at a railway station. “They didn’t tell us where they were taking us and later dropped us at a railway station on the Madhya Pradesh border. From there were put on another train to Varanasi, but we got down near Ayodhya,” he said.

The farmer leader said that even though they were detained by the police, they were not provided any accommodation or help after releasing them. “We were left stranded in Uttar Pradesh so we have made arrangements here and we will discuss further steps. Our leaders are already in Delhi, so we will have a discussion with them and decide what we will do next,” he added.

However, superintendent of police (Ujjain) Sachin Sharma said that the accused were in police protection.

“They were free to go anywhere. They wanted to go to Ayodhya so they boarded a train on a Wednesday and reached there. We didn’t play any role in their planning,” he added.