Mainstream
Mainstream, VOL LIX No 7, New Delhi, January 30, 2021
Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Jan 30, 2021
Friday 29 January 2021
Tens of thousands of protesting peasants on foot and on tractors participated in a huge rally in New Delhi that took place on India’s Republic Day (January 26, 2021). This huge rally took place peacefully, but a smaller group of several thousand protesters diverted from agreed routes of the procession and indulged in violence …. they were instigated and led by some people who are seemingly close to the ruling party and had camped close to sites of the farmers’ stir but were never part of the movement led by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha — a coalition some 32 different peasant unions currently camping on the borders of Delhi; this lot violently barged their way into Delhi’s Red Fort. It is astonishing that the hundreds of policemen present at the site could do little to prevent the entry of the crowd into the Red Fort.