Time For A Climbdown?

The violent incidents on Republic Day have cost the farmers’ movement credibility—and leverage in negotiations with the government

- Anilesh S. Mahajan & Sujit Thakur

The runaway show of strength on January 26, leading to incidents of violence in the capital and the siege of the Red Fort, has forced the protesting farmers on the back foot. It has also broken their ranks, with several farm leaders who were committed—as agreed in negotiations with the government—to a peaceful tractor rally on Republic Day, straining to distance themselves from the renegade leaders. This lot, they insist, hijacked plans to continue the peaceful resistance till the government yielded to their demand for a repeal, nothing less, of the contentious new farm laws. Fearing that the violent incidents on the day may have cost them public sympathy and realising fully well that the police and government will plan retribution, the Samyunkt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella grouping of 40-odd farmer outfits participating in these protests, has publicly withdrawn its plan to march to Parliament on Budget day (February 1). Its leaders have instead decided to observe a day-long fast on January 30, Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary.

The outfits also say they have disassociated themselves from farmer leaders Satnam Singh Pannu and Swaran Singh Pandher of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, which represents farmers from Punjab’s Majha region, and actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu. They are mum, though, on some other leaders—such as Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait), Gurnam Singh Chaduni and Darshan Pal Grewal—who, Delhi Police suspect, made provocative speeches and instigated the farmers in the run-up to the tractor rally.