Chaos at Delhi borders as farmers break barricades, police use lathis, tear gas

Chaotic scenes emerge from Delhi while India celebrated Republic Day. Thousands of farmers knocked down police barricades and entered Delhi on foot this morning amid a huge police presence as they kicked off their tractor rally against the government’s new agricultural laws. With chaos unfolding near the city’s borders, police used baton and tear-gas to scatter the crowd.

Amid celebration for 72nd Republic Day across the country, farmers allowed to hold their tractor rally- “Kissan Parade”- in Delhi after the annual event at the iconic Rajpath. However, protestors, force their way into the city, much ahead of the time they were granted permission by Delhi police for their tractor parade.

The Delhi Police on Monday gave a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the protesting farmer unions for their proposed Republic Day tractor parade with 37 conditions, including capping the number of participants and allocating a fixed time slot.

Unprecedented visuals showed chaos unfolding at the Singhu border, which divides Delhi and Haryana and has been the epicenter of protests against the farm laws that began in late November. More than 5,000 protesters had gathered at the Singhu border.

In west Delhi near the Tikri border, farmers’ leaders asked the protesters to maintain calm after the march began at around 9 AM. “Our rally will be peaceful and we will stick to the routes assigned,” a leader said to news media.

The farm leaders have claimed that the Delhi police are stopping them from moving towards the route the farmers and police earlier agreed upon. “We’ve to move towards Ring Road but the police are stopping us. We’ve given them 45 mins to speak to their seniors. We’re carrying out a peaceful parade. The route they are asking us to follow wasn’t agreed upon,” Satnam Singh Pannu, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee at Singhu Border said to ANI.