Hundreds of farmers were detained by Punjab Police on Wednesday as they attempted to march toward Chandigarh for a week-long protest.
The protest, led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) along with over 30 farmer groups, was met with heavy security measures, including barricades at more than 25 locations across Punjab.
Punjab Police Deputy Inspector General HS Bhullar, speaking to PTI, stated, “Wherever any farmer came out [on the roads], the police of that area stopped them.”
In response to the police action, farmers burned effigies of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led state government.
A farmer leader told The Hindu, “We have burnt effigies of the Mann government in Amritsar for stopping the farmers’ march to Chandigarh. The AAP government is suppressing our democratic right to protest. Farmers are being stopped from protesting in the national capital and also from protesting in the state capital. The chief minister is working at the behest of the Centre.”
The protesting farmers have been demanding a favorable agriculture policy and a legal guarantee for minimum support prices (MSP) on six crops, including basmati rice, maize, moong dal, and potatoes.
They have also called for the rejection of the Union government’s draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing and the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations.
On Tuesday, ahead of the protest, several SKM leaders were detained by the police and booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, according to The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann criticized the ongoing farmer protests, accusing them of turning Punjab into a “state of dharnas.” He remarked, “I told farmers that every day you hold ‘rail roko,’ ‘sadak roko’ protests. This is causing immense losses to Punjab. The state is facing economic losses. Punjab is becoming a state of dharnas.”
A day before the protest, Mann reportedly walked out of a meeting with farmer leaders at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh after they presented him with a list of 18 demands.
