New Delhi: Everyone, except the Haryana Police chief, would have seen photos and visuals of metal shrapnel in bodies of a number protesting farmers at Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border in Ambala. At least three farmers — as claimed by Punjab Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh — lost their eyesight forever because of pellet injuries. The discovery of sharp nails in injuries have led the agitating peasants to allege that the security forces are using pellets.
The agitating peasants — who were admitted to hospitals or underwent minor surgical procedures at the protest site — accused the cops of using pellet guns, smoke and petrol bombs apart from teargas shells, rubber bullets and water cannons to prevent the former from breaching barricades and marching towards New Delhi.
“I have not come across photographs or reports in newspapers of pellet gun injuries,” Haryana Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur told The Hindu on February 18, adding that the police used “minimum force” and that their action was restricted to rubber bullets.
“Our response is limited to rubber bullets,” he said and claimed his men are strictly following the standard operating procedure (SOP) — first use tear gas, then water cannons and cane charge and lastly rubber bullets — to deal with a mob.
The rubber bullets — as he claimed — are being fired from a “distance of 50-60 yards without directly aiming” at the protesters. “The rubber bullets are pointed to the ground — which ricochet and then hit the target. We do not want to injure the people,” he claimed.
He alleged — apparently following a pattern that of late justifies any police action, making it a larger public narrative — that the protesters were chanting “anti-India slogans”.
“The atmosphere there (at Shambhu border between Patiala and Ambala) is different. They (the protesting farmers) are hurling anti-India slogans. There are many disturbing videos and images. They are taking extreme provocative actions,” he claimed.
As part of their ‘Delhi Chalo’ call, the protesters embarked on their march on February 13 to rush and camp in the national capital to press the Centre’s Narendra Modi government for fulfilling its promises — including a legal guarantee to ensure minimum support prices (MSP) on procurement of all 23 crops under the purview of Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP), debt waiver, scrapping of Electricity Amendment Bill, withdrawal of cases filed against them during their 13-month protest in 2020-21 and justice for the victims of the farmers who were crushed to death at Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri by SUVs (one of them allegedly belonging to Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni and being driven by his son).
A few new demands have also been included this time — India’s withdrawal from World Trade Organisation agreements and reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
The marching peasants were forcibly stopped at the border by the state police and Central reserve forces with the help of multilayer barricades. Concertina wires have been rolled out in addition to putting up cement barriers, iron barricades, boulders and sad sacks, erecting concrete walls and digging up trenches.
Meanwhile, in order to cement its charges that the farmers are indulging in “ruckus” to “provoke” security forces, the Haryana Police has released a series of video clips on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) — showing the agitators purportedly pelting stones. The police asserted that “ruckus” cannot be allowed under the guise of farmers’ movement.
Among the videos shared, one purported clip shows several young protesters, with their faces covered, hurling stones at the security personnel at the Shambhu border. The protesting farmers, in another purported video, can be seen collecting stones to throw at the security personnel.
Claiming that its 25 personnel — 18 associated with the Haryana Police and seven belonging to paramilitary forces — suffered injuries in the clashes, they wrote, “Under the guise of farmers’ movement, miscreants are creating disorder at the Shambhu barrier, and ruckus cannot be allowed under the guise of farmers’ movement.”
However, farmer leaders have rubbished the police allegation, claiming that there is no provocation from their side and that the cops are using brute force as if the farmers are criminals.
“Security personnel are stationed in plain clothes without any identification,” they alleged.
After their crucial fourth round of talk with the government that lasted for hours on February 18 night in Chandigarh, the farmers have put their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march on hold for two days to discuss the proposal put forward by Union minister Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai.
Refusing to bring first an ordinance and then a legislation on MSP with immediate effect, the government has proposed that its agencies will enter into an agreement with the farmers and buy maze, pulses and cotton crops at MSP for five years.
Talking to the media after the more than four-hour-long meeting, which commenced at 8.15 pm, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Goyal described the proposal as an “innovative” and “out-of-the-box” idea to which the farmer leaders would take a final call.
“Cooperative societies such as the NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) and the NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers Federation) will enter into a contract with those farmers who grow maize, pulses like ‘masoor dal’ (red lentil), ‘urad dal’ (black lentil), ‘tur dal’ (pigeon peas) and cotton for buying their crops at MSP for next five years,” he told the media.
He elaborated that there would be no limit on the quantity of the procurement and that a portal will be developed for the same.
“The crop diversification will save Punjab’s farming, improve the groundwater table and save the land from getting barren — which is already under stress,” he said.
Following the meeting with the ministers, farmer leaders (who had earlier claimed that nothing less than an ordinance on the MSP would be acceptable to them) said they will discuss the proposal in their forums for the next two days (February 19-20), and thereafter, decide the next course of action.
“We will discuss it in our forums [the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha] for the next two days and then take a final call on it,” said farmers’ leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, adding that they have decided to put on hold till then their march towards Delhi.
He said, “Since the government came up with the proposal, showing some seriousness in addressing our demands, it would not send a good signal to people if we refuse to engage in talks and go ahead with the march. We too want peaceful and amicable resolution.”
If the proposal is rejected by the protesting farmers, he said, they would move towards the national capital. “I would urge the government to let us proceed peacefully if it happens,” he added.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also joined the meeting as a mediator. His intervention is being viewed by many as an attempt to develop a cordial Centre-state relation that is already sour.
“Since the farmers are being attacked by the Haryana Police in Punjab’s territory (because the Shambhu border is located between the two states), there is a moral pressure on Mann to intervene and put a check on it. In addition, it is also an attempt to improve relations of his state with the Centre so that his government can function smoothly,” said two political analysts, The Mooknayak spoke to.
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