NEW DELHI (AP) – Leaders of a protest movement on Wednesday tried to distance themselves from a day of violence when thousands of farmers stormed India’s historic Red Fort, the most dramatic moment in two months of demonstrations that have become a major challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Farmers demanding repeal of the new agricultural laws briefly took control of the 17th century fort, and the images broadcast live on television shocked the nation. In a particularly bold rebuke to Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, protesters raised a Sikh religious flag.
At least one protester died and several demonstrators were injured, as well as more than 390 police, and there are concerns that violence may undermine the protest movement that has so far been largely peaceful and is growing in strength.
Police said 19 people were arrested and 50 others were detained for questioning.
Farmers – many of them minority Sikhs from the main agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana – are demanding the repeal of new laws that say they will favor large corporate farms, devastate the earnings of many farmers by cutting prices and leaving those with small land behind. how big corporations win.
The government insists that the laws will benefit farmers and increase production through private investment, but, in the face of protests, offered to suspend them for 18 months. Farmers want nothing less than a total repeal.
On Tuesday, more than 10,000 tractors and thousands of people on foot or on horseback moved to the capital, pushing barricades and buses that blocked their way and were sometimes greeted by the police using tear gas and water cannons.
“The situation is normal now. The protesters left the streets of the capital, ”said New Delhi policeman Anto Alphonse on Wednesday morning.
Hundreds of police officers are guarding the fort, while farmers have returned to camp outside the capital, where they have been crouching since November, when they last tried to march in New Delhi. Not bothered by the cold winter and frequent rains, they said they would stay until agricultural laws were repealed.
Protesting groups of farmers were due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the future course of action. Another march is planned for February 1, when the Modi government is expected to present the annual budget to Parliament.
As protests gain momentum, they shake the government like never before, as they form the most influential electoral bloc in India and are also crucial to its economy. But political analyst Arti Jerath said Tuesday’s violence could lessen their power.
“The Supreme Court has always said that farmers can continue the protest without disturbing life in New Delhi,” she said. “Tuesday’s development gave the government an opportunity to go to the higher court and say to see this is precisely what it feared would become violent.”
Cracks appeared on Wednesday in the protest movement, when a former summoner from the umbrella organization of farmers disassociated himself from the group after Tuesday’s violent clashes.
VM Singh said he is ready to negotiate legislation with the government to guarantee a minimum support price for wheat and rice. He said he is no longer seeking to repeal the three new laws.
Protest organizer Samyukt Kisan Morcha, or United Farmers’ Front, sought to distance the movement from violence, accusing two external groups of sabotage by infiltrating their movement.
“Even if it was sabotage, we cannot escape responsibility,” said Yogendra Yadav, another protest leader.
Yadav said that frustration grew among protesting farmers and asked, “How do you control this if the government does not take seriously what they have been demanding for two months?”
Several roads were closed again on Wednesday near police headquarters and Connaught Place, a commercial area close to government offices, after a protest by some retired Delhi police officers demanding a lawsuit against protesting farmers involved in the violence, the agency said. Press Trust of India news said.
Since returning to power for a second term, Modi’s government has been rocked by several upheavals. The pandemic has put India’s already faltering economy into recession, social conflicts have escalated and its government has been questioned about its response to the coronavirus pandemic. India last suffered a recession in 1979-80, after an oil shock.
In addition, India saw a rising wave of Hindu nationalism under Modi, which angered minority groups. In 2019, the year that witnessed the first major protests against his government, a diverse coalition of groups met against a new contentious citizenship law that they said discriminated against Muslims.
Anger is now starting to rise among Sikhs as well, although farmers’ protests remain largely driven by economic factors. India is predominantly Hindu, while Muslims account for 14% and Sikhs almost 2% of its nearly 1.4 billion inhabitants.
“The government on the national security front has failed. I think this government seems to be quite blind to the type of security challenges it is creating for itself by alienating minority, Muslim and Sikh communities, ”said Jerath, the political analyst.
Tuesday’s escalation overshadowed Republic Day celebrations, including the annual military parade that has already been curtailed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Neeraja Choudhury, a political analyst, said the government had failed to anticipate what was to come and prepare properly. “If farmers are generally agitated in India, you cannot dismiss the protests as an opposition that incites farmers.”
The police said protesting farmers fled the approved protest routes and resorted to “violence and vandalism”. Anil Kumar, a police spokesman, said more than 300 police were injured in the clashes. Several jumped into a dry, deep drain in the area of the fort to escape the demonstrators, who outnumbered them in several places.
Police said a protester died after his tractor overturned, but farmers said he was shot. Several bloody protesters can be seen on television images, but it is not known how many were injured.
Thirty police vehicles and hundreds of metal barricades were damaged by the protesters, the police said.