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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | How to Cage a Protest: Notes From Day One of the Kisan Sansad -Indra Shekhar Singh

How to Cage a Protest: Notes From Day One of the Kisan Sansad -Indra Shekhar Singh

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published Published on Jul 23, 2021   modified Modified on Jul 27, 2021

-TheWire.in

A little surprised at the security measures, a farmer from Karnataka said the Jantar Mantar protest site seemed 'Emergency-esque' and resembled the border with Pakistan.

New Delhi: It was about noon, when the brown dogs began to growl. Long hours of waiting, three “security checks” and a sultry sun made mediapersons slightly edgy, but the ‘Kisan Sansad’ was not in session yet. My eyes drifted to the red sundial across the street. Between us were 80-odd yellow steel police barricades, two dozen paramilitary platoons with tear-gas bomb and grenade launchers, water cannons, hundreds of other irascible police personnel and of course growling dogs. Where was I? Wagah border, Kashmir, Tikri, Palestine?

No, this was Jantar Mantar, the historic protest site, conveniently converted into a maximum security open prison, awaiting its new inmates – farmers and their leaders. Meanwhile, hundreds of us – mediapersons, were stuffed into a barricaded pen for “security reasons”. The farmers’ area was on one side of the fence and the media on the other.

Soon, the police escorts with farmers’ buses started to arrive and the grey tarmac, on the farmers’ side, hosted green, yellow and red flags. As farmers advanced to the barricades hoping to converse with the media, police dissuaded them. Orders were clear, keep the media and farmers away till 2 pm.

Gauging the pressure, leaders quickly disciplined their ranks, and the Kisan Sansad began. All afternoon, the Sansad discussed the farm laws and called upon representatives from different regions to discuss APMCs, Essential Commodities Act, and rising prices, among other issues. MPs from Parliament like Binoy Vishwam came to witness the proceedings too. But what did all this signify?

Hannan Mollah, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, explained, “Six hundred farmers have died, and eight months have passed, yet the government doesn’t want to discuss the farm laws. Today our peaceful resistance evolves. It seeds hope for workers, peasants and farmers, as after many years, they all are together and fighting as one force for democracy and dignity.”

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TheWire.in, 23 July, 2021, https://thewire.in/rights/how-to-cage-a-protest-notes-from-day-one-of-the-kisan-sansad


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