A large number of farmers sat at the gates of the district headquarters here on Tuesday, locked in a showdown with Haryana’s BJP-led government over a police lathi-charge last month.
The gherao began in the evening, several hours after farmers from Haryana and neighbouring states reached Karnal’s Mandi for a mahapanchayat. Marching on foot, farmers faced a water cannon as they neared the complex. They jumped some barricades, but there was no other serious confrontation with police along the way.
The protesters were demanding action over a police lathi-charge in Karnal on August 28. Farmer unions had warned that they will gherao the mini-secretariat if the administration did not meet their demands, centring around IAS officer Ayush Sinha who was later transferred out as part of a larger bureaucratic shuffle. Protest leaders Gurnam Singh Chaduni, Rakesh Tikait and Yogendra Yadav were at the gherao site. Chaduni, who heads the Haryana Bhartiya Kisan Union, said the sit-in will continue till their demands are met. Late in the evening, Karnal Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said the administration had invited the farm leaders for another round of talks. Meanwhile, in Delhi, the Congress said Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar should resign if he cannot talk with the protesting farmers. Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should shed his “ego and arrogance” and withdraw the three “black laws” over which farmers have been protesting for months.
Earlier, the local administration invited 11 farm leaders for talks. After round of talks for three hours, the leaders announced that the administration had not agreed to the demands — and then thousands of farmers headed on foot towards the secretariat. During their talks with the administration, Yadav said, the farm leaders insisted only on the suspension of the IAS officer and no other demand was raised. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said the state government is not listening to the farmers. “The Khattar government should agree to our demands or else arrest us. We are ready to fill Haryana jails,” he tweeted. Mobile internet services were already suspended in Karnal and the four adjoining districts of Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind and Panipat until Tuesday midnight. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC banning gathering of people were imposed in Karnal district.
