Protesters Ignored The 12 PM - 8 PM Tractor Rally Schedule, Began Breaking Barricades As Early As 8 AM: Report

Nothing went as planned on Tuesday regarding the schedule and plan of the tractor rally by farmers protesting against the new farm bills at New Delhi border. The police and farmer union leaders have had several rounds of meetings and chalked-out the route and timings of the rally, but nearly all conditions were broken.

As per a report by The Times of India, the timing decided was 12 pm to 5 pm. However, protesters began challenging the police as early as 6 30 am, that is, much before the Republic Day parade.

They tried to pass through the barricades at Ghazipur around this time, but stopped after verbal argument. By 8 am, however, barricades were down at Singhu border. Some 45 minutes later, this was repeated at Tikri. From 9 30 am, a large number of tractors forced their way in Delhi from multiple border areas while clashing with the police, as per the report.

“By 10 am, around 6,000-7,000 tractors had entered Delhi, violating virtually all mutually agreed terms and conditions,” the Times report says. It was only at 10 45 am that the police first used teargas to disperse the crowd.

The report says a total of 37 conditions had been agreed upon, most of them routine and relevant for any other protest march. The most important condition however was that the protest was to take place after the Republic Day parade.

This condition, in fact, began to be broken on Monday night itself when protesters tried to barge into Delhi from Loni border on Monday around 10 pm. They were stopped in time by closing Signature Bridge. No predesignated routes for the rally were followed on Tuesday, the report says.

The rally was supposed to move from Singhu border to Kanjhawala, KMP Expressway ands return. From Tikri Border, it was supposed to pass through Nangloi, Najafgarh and Western Peripheral Expressway. From Ghazipur border, it was supposed to go to Apsara border, Hapur and return.

They were prohibited from brandishing arms or performing acrobatics, but both were done. Around 20 first information reports (FIRs) have bene filed against the erring protesters.