Farmers' 'Delhi Chalo' march: Lessons learned from 2020-2021 protest, police tighten security

The farmers are set to begin their march early on Tuesday, a farm leader asserted after a five-hour meeting in Chandigarh with two Union ministers over their demands remained inconclusive.

On Monday, tractor-trolleys set out from different parts of Punjab to join the protest.

"We don't think the government is serious about any of our demands. We don't think they want to fulfil our demands...on Tuesday, we will march towards Delhi at 10 am," farm leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters after the meeting ended late on Monday.

VIDEO | Tractor trollies line up at Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib as farmers prepare for their 'Delhi Chalo' march. pic.twitter.com/83NO9wS8ot

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 13, 2024

The Delhi Police has imposed Section 144 of the CrPC for a month — banning the assembly of five or more people, processions or rallies and entry of tractor trolleys ferrying people — in the city in view of intended widespread tension and "social unrest" due to the farmers' march.

According to orders issued by Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, prior permission is required from the authorities concerned for congregations and processions related to weddings, funerals and other religious functions.

During their earlier protest, farmers — mainly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh — staged sit-ins at the three border points from August 2020 to December 2021.

In 2020, the police had to rush the logistics to check the entry of the farmers moving in a procession of tractors.

A senior Delhi Police officer said that learning from past experience, tight security arrangements have been put in place this time. The police have also sealed rural roads bordering Haryana to stop the protesters from moving ahead to enter Delhi.

The officer told PTI that barricades have been installed in such a way that the farmers would not be able to easily remove them. Concrete has been used to seal the cement boulders.

Fear of financial losses and other hardships has returned to haunt locals and shopkeepers in Delhi's border areas ahead of the protest march.

Late on Monday, Union Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, who, along with Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal, attended the second round of talks with the farm leaders, said a consensus was reached on most issues and a formula was proposed for resolving some others through the formation of a committee.

However, sources said, the farm leaders were adamant on a legal guarantee to MSP for crops, which is one of their key demands.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are also demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act — 2013, withdrawal from the World Trade Organization, and compensation for families of farmers who died during the previous agitation, among others.