Mass Detention
Police in India’s northern state of Punjab have detained hundreds of farmers and used bulldozers to dismantle their makeshift camps in a border area where they had been protesting for more than a year. The farmers had been demanding legally backed assurances of better crop prices and increased state support for their produce.
The protest encampment was set up in February 2023 at the border between Punjab and Haryana, after security forces prevented the farmers from marching toward the Indian capital, New Delhi. The demonstrators had planned to press the central government for their demands, seeking a formal guarantee for minimum support prices (MSP) for crops.
The clearance operation took place on Wednesday night, with authorities citing the economic disruption caused by the prolonged road blockade as one of the reasons for the action. Senior police officer Nanak Singh stated that the eviction was carried out without the use of force, as farmers complied voluntarily. “We did not need to use any force because there was no resistance,” Singh told the ANI news agency, adding that the farmers had been given prior notice.
Television footage showed police using bulldozers to tear down tents and dismantle protest stages while farmers gathered their belongings. Some of the detained protestors, including prominent farmer leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, were escorted away by the authorities. Dallewal, who had been on an indefinite hunger strike, was taken away in an ambulance.
The move sparked criticism from farmer groups, with Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait condemning the action. “On one hand, the government is negotiating with the farmer organizations, and on the other hand, it is arresting them,” he said in a post on X.
Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which authorized the eviction, claimed that while it supported the farmers’ demands, it could not allow indefinite road blockades that harmed the state’s economy. “Let’s work together to safeguard Punjab’s interests,” said AAP’s Punjab vice president, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, while urging the farmers to engage directly with the federal government.
The farmers’ movement gained nationwide attention in 2021 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was forced to repeal three controversial farm laws following year-long protests by farmers who had camped outside Delhi.
The latest crackdown comes despite ongoing talks between the farmers’ leaders and federal government representatives. Fatehjung Singh Bajwa, vice president of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab, stated that a meeting had taken place on Wednesday between the two sides. He described the arrests as a “deliberate attempt to disrupt the ongoing dialogue between farmers and BJP leadership.”
With tensions rising, it remains uncertain whether the government will offer concessions or if the farmers will regroup and launch another wave of protests.
