Delhi border: On the day when Uttar Pradesh police ordered protesters to vacate the site, Ghazipur was swelling with people. Most were farmers. Others were students and activists who stood beside the farmers at a time when the government appeared prepared to forcibly remove protesters on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.
One of the leading figures of the movement at Ghazipur is Rakesh Tikait, the leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union and the son of Mahendra Singh Tikait who protested against Rajiv Gandhi’s government in 1988, demanding farm waivers.
Faced with a dictum from Uttar Pradesh police, Tikait refused to surrender and said that he and his supporters wound not end the protest till the newly drafted farm acts are withdrawn. He slammed the government’s high-handedness which he said had led to tensions on the night of January 28.
Hearing Tikait break down on video, farmers from across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab began trooping in to join the protest.
These photos capture this crucial day in the movement.
Rakesh Singh Tikait addressing the crowd of farmers at the Ghazipur border. Photo: Shome Basu
Concrete checkpoints and barricades put on NH24, at the Delhi-UP border, in Ghazipur. Photo: Shome Basu
UP Police taking a break at the protest site on the Delhi-UP border, Ghazipur. Photo: Shome Basu
A group coming in from Singhu border to provide moral support to the protesters at Ghazipur. Photo: Shome Basu
A photo of a graffiti taken during the farmers’ protests at the Delhi-UP border in Ghazipur. Photo: Shome Basu
Sugarcane farmers from Baghpat at the protest site in Ghazipur. Photo: Shome Basu
