E-Paper
Gramin Bharat bandh: Farm shutdown affects four states, next talks on Sunday
Gramin Bharat bandh: Arjun Munda, part of a ministerial delegation in talks with farmers' unions until midnight, hopeful for a outcome in 4th round on Sunday.
Several parts of Punjab and some parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were hit by a largely rural shutdown called by farmer groups on Friday, hours after the third round of talks between them and the government remained inconclusive, leaving a stalemate that involves a caravan of thousands of farmers camping on the Haryana-Punjab border.
In the early hours of Friday, police fired tear gas shells at a group of farmers as they attempted to approach the barricades at the Shambhu Border near Ambala, where Haryana police has laid down rows of metal and concrete barriers and spike strips.
Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda, who was part of a three-minister delegation that held talks with farm union representatives well into midnight earlier, said he was hopeful that the fourth round of talks scheduled for Sunday will “yield positive results”.
“Solutions can be found only through dialogue. The idea is to resolve their concerns by holding talks on key issues,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
A collective of several farmer unions began an agitation on February 9 to press the government for several legal guarantees, including minimum support price (MSP) for crops and for criminal cases linked to a 2021 protest to be dropped.
While the group that began from Punjab on its march to Delhi has appeared to pause its plans for the talks — Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) chief Jagjit Singh Dallewal told Reuters that “if we move forward (towards Delhi) then how will meetings (with the government) happen?” — another powerful group from Punjab said it will join the stir.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), which has a significant farmer base in Punjab, on Friday said it will join the agitation spearheaded by Dallewal group, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) at Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border, and will hold sit-ins in front of the houses of Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar, former CM Captain Amarinder and ex-MLA Kewal Singh Dhillon on February 17 and 18.
The shutdown on Friday was most effective in Punjab, with markets and commercial establishments in several places being shut as groups of farmers held demonstrations and blocked national highways in Pathankkot, Tarn Taran, Bathinda and Jalandhar.
Several parts of Amritsar, too, were shutdown in response to the bandh call, with Congress workers, who have backed the MSP demand, scuffling with the police after being prevented from reaching the BJP district office at Khanna Smarak. DCP (city) Pragya Jain said, “No untoward incident was reported during the shutdown. Cops were deployed at all key points and sites of demonstration.”
In Haryana, farmers occupied toll plazas at Rohtak, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri and other parts of the state from noon to 3pm. In Dadri, farmers and khap leaders sat on a dharna at Barwas and Morwala.
There was some unrest in Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh after protesting farmers tore down barricades at a BJP meeting, leading to a lathi charge by the police. Himmat Singh, Rajasthan president of the Kisan Morcha which led the protests in the area said, “During the Viksit Bharat meet of the BJP near Abohar bypass, some farmers tried to break the barricades. Police pushed them back and there was a skirmish.” Senior police officials said one farmer was injured.
In Jharkhand’s Ranchi, while there was no effect of the bandh, farmers held a march in the city, while in Giridih some roads were blocked at places like Tisri, Sariya and Raj Dhanwar.
The bandh also had limited support in western Uttar Pradesh, with a group of farmers forcing the closing of sugarcane centres in Bijnor.
BKU (Tikait) leaders said that farmers staged protests at 11 designated locations in Muzaffarnagar.
BKU West UP president Pawan Khatana said that they directed farmers not to compel anyone to support the Bandh.
BKU leader Rakesh Tikait — among the major figures during the 2021 protest against the three farm laws that were then repealed — protested at the Bagovali crossing on the Delhi-Dehradun highway and said: “A meeting is scheduled in Sisauli (Muzaffaranagar) on Saturday, where planning for the future course of action will be made.”
