A little before midnight on the intervening night of January 25 and 26, a flurry of activity on a makeshift stage at the Singhu border seemed to be the precursor to what was about to unfold in the next 24 hours in the national capital.
A seemingly belligerent crowd was being addressed by actor-turned- activist Deep Sidhu, who now is at the centre of Republic Day violence, who was inciting them to breach the pre-determined tractor parade route.
“They say we can’t enter Delhi… why can’t we?’’ rallied Sidhu amid loud cheers from the rapt gathering. He went on well past midnight. Though none of the other Union leaders like Balbir Singh Rajewal was present on stage, they were around the venue. It is, however, difficult to fathom if they were unaware of such rhetorical speeches being made in the vicinity or were deliberately ignorant.
So, did the farmer unions choose to ignore the warning signs of defiance or did the extremist elements ‘hijack’ the agitation in those crucial hours ahead of the tractor parade?
Two unions have already withdrawn from the anti-farm laws protests over the violence that had miscreants lay siege to the Red Fort on the occasion of India’s 72nd Republic Day and unfurl the Nishan Sahib atop its dome, go on a rampage on the capital’s streets, and clash with the Delhi police injuring over 100 security personnel.
Farmer leaders, including Rajewal, were quick to distance themselves from the incidents. “We condemn what they have done. We have given a call to throw out the filth from the farmers’ movement,’’ he told protestors at Singhu border on Wednesday.
But the slew of statements made by these union leaders helped little to deflect blame or responsibility.
Earlier, hours before the rally, another farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni had announced before the media that January 26 was the ‘final match’. “Us din lathi chale, goli chale, sarkar ki zimmevari hogi (if there is violence or if bullets are fired, the government will be responsible).’’
Swaraj Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav on Wednesday released a video saying that the farmer leaders could not escape the moral responsibility of being unable to manage the tractor parade they called for and that the movement would learn from past mistakes, evolve and crack down on saboteurs.
Union leaders claim that they were suspicious of Sidhu’s ‘activities’ and were also keeping an eye on gangster-turned-activist Lakha Sidhana ever since the agitation started two months ago. “We kept them away from any activity be it talks or meetings for all these months,’’ said a farmer leader. Yet, not just Sidhu but far-left leaning unions like the Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee continued to ‘stay put’ at the agitation sites and incite crowds.
Despite assertions of a united front put up by the 32 unions that form the nerve of the farmers’ agitation, differences have been surfacing among the constituents. Even when the Centre offered to suspend the farm laws for 18 months – an unprecedented climbdown for the government and a huge win for the farmers – it had triggered massive differences between some factions which were downplayed by senior farmer leaders. But the Republic day violence has certainly laid bare their ‘fragile control’ over the agitators.
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