Dec 27,2020:As the farmers’ protest against the farm laws completed almost a month at the Ghazipur border, the numbers are swelling at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border. The row of tractors behind the stage on the Delhi-Meerut expressway has suddenly become longer in the last two days. Among those who have joined in the last couple of days are peasants from Punjab.
On Saturday, farmers blocked both the carriageways on the expressway for around five hours. The traffic from Delhi was diverted via Anand Vihar. “We do it when the administration doesn’t allow our tractors to come to the protest site. Once they allowed, we opened the traffic from Delhi,” said Gurpreet Singh from Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand. “At this point, the tractors have covered at least 4 km of the Meerut carriageway,” said Mr. Gurpreet, adding the protesters did not stop the vehicles of essential services.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s address to farmers on Friday, Mr. Singh said the PM’s comparison between poultry and dairy farmers and those growing food grains was misplaced. “Eggs and milk could be sold in small quantities to different buyers. I can’t keep selling a quintal of grain and I don’t have the facility to hoard,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, who negotiated with the administration during the day, said, “Jab tak Bill wapsi nahin, tab tak ghar wapsi nahin (‘as long as the Acts are not repealed, we will not return home’).” He said the protest was leaderless and being run by farmers. “After many years, farmers have come together for their rights. We can’t allow it to be sabotaged,” he said.
