Farmers' stir: Cops caught napping?

Bengaluru: Thursday’s protests by farmers that led to rioting and violence on Ballari Road and subsequent caning by the police, have exposed that the police was not prepared to tackle the situation. The protests gained momentum from 1 pm until around 4 pm, when the orders were given for a lathi charge to bring the situation under control, had already brought the city to its knees with major traffic gridlocks at the arterial Ballari Road/International Airport Road that connected the city’s core regions with the airport.

While sources from the police claimed that no permission was granted to the agitating farmers to bring in large number of tractors or other vehicles to the city, the protest organisers disputed it stating that they were granted permission on Thursday morning by the traffic police for bringing in 500 tractors for their agitation in Freedom Park. The police could feel the heat only when the situation turned volatile at the Cauvery Theatre junction, half a kilometre from ‘Krishna’ – the Chief Minister’s residence on Kumarakrupa Road.

While it’s being discussed that the police were not expecting the agitators to turn up in such large numbers, senior police officers were fuming at their subordinates for underestimating their ‘strategies’, a source from the police said. The farmers initially assembled at the Rani Circle in Devanahalli from all the villages and nearby Chikkaballapura. Another large group of farmers were on their way from Kolar taking the K.R. Puram route that touched Devanahalli.

When the police were restricting the numbers of the farmers in Devanahalli and Yelahanka, a good number of agitators coming from Kolar chose to travel taking the inside Jayamahal main road reaching Mekhri Circle directly. There was another group of farmers arriving at the Bangalore Palace near Gayathri Hall at the same time, sources from the police said.

It was then the police realised that things were going out of hand as a number of agitating farmers started pouring into the stretch between Mekhri Circle and Cauvery Theatre Junction along with their tractors and other vehicles and the plan was to head towards Vidhana Soudha and ghearo the CM’s residence. Until then the police assumed that they were all on their way to Freedom Park for a peaceful protest, sources added.

It is learnt that the subordinates were reprimanded by the senior police officers for misjudging the farmers’ strategies even as a detailed report on the entire incident is being compiled by the city police for the perusal of the home ministry and the government, the source stated.

Highways under siege Chikkaballapur, kolar hit
The police lathicharge on agitating farmers in the city on Thursday created ripples in the neigbouring districts with various organisations observing a total bandh in Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts. The bandh, called in protest against the police action, by various farmer organisations was successful in both the districts. However, the protests left thousands of passengers stranded as farmers blocked the highway leading to Ananthpur and Chennai.

In Kolar, members of various organisations blocked the national highway, where thousands of vehicles ply between Bengaluru and Chennai. The protesters blocked the roads from 5 am and the thousands of vehicle queued up on the highway till 1 pm. Later, the protesters allowed the vehicles by removing boulders and tyres kept to block the road. Vehicles queued up on the highway for more than 15 kilometres and thousands of passengers were stranded on the road at Kalahastipura, Tamballi, Vaddahalli and Kondarajanahalli.

The agitators damaged around five vehicles by pelting stones at two KSRTC buses and three private vehicles. In addition, all commercial establishments were shut throughout the day and holiday was declared for schools and colleges. The first PU exam scheduled to be held on Friday was postponed.

The agitators who laid siege to the DC’s office, burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and criticised the government and police for lathi charge on farmers, who were demanding a permanent solution to the water problem faced by them since decades.

The situation was same in Chikkaballapur, where the protests began at 5 am. The bandh was successful in all the six taluks of the district. The farmers blocked NH7 leading to Anantapur for hours and the commercial establishments were shut due to the protests.

There were heated argument between the police and farmers, when they were told not to block the national highway. Schools and colleges remained closed in the wake of protests.

The police messed up: Farmer leader, Kodihalli Chandrashekhar

Why do you think the farmers’ protest took an ugly turn on Thursday?
I blame the police. We had taken  permission and informed them about the protest almost 15 days in advance. So they had a clear idea of what we intended to do. First, they asked us to limit the number of tractors to 500. But then just a few hours before the protest, they passed an order prohibiting the tractors from entering the city altogether. Why did they do this? And when the farmers reached Windsor Manor junction, it was the police who began to do a lathicharge.

Kodihalli Chandrashekhar

But the police say they had to cane the agitators to contain the situation as they were pelting stones at buses?

The policemen were video recording the protests. Let them show us the footage of farmers resorting to such vandalism.  Going by the plan given to us by the police, we were supposed to park the tractors at Palace Grounds and then walk up to  Freedom Park, but they stopped us at Mekhri Circle  and this led to the problem.

How do you justify the inconvenience caused to the general public in the city due to the farmers’ protest?
If hundreds of tractors enter the city, there will of course be a traffic gridlock. The protest was planned in a way that it would not cause any trouble to the public. But the police’s  high- handedness provoked the agitators and this resulted in chaos. We had no intention of troubling the general public by blocking the roads. During the Global Investors Meet recently, the police had diverted the traffic to ensure there were no traffic snarls. Why didn’t they do the same when they knew that a large number of farmers would be participating in our protest?

What do the agitators expect from the government?
One protest cannot change our lives. But it is the duty of the government to listen to our difficulties patiently and resolve them. If the Chief Minister or any other minister had met us at some point during the protest, it would  not have turned ugly. They could have met us at the Palace Grounds or Freedom Park but none of the Cabinet ministers had the courtesy to do so. We would have agreed even if they had met us and said our demands were not feasible. But they  completely ignored the farmers.

What will be your next course of action?
There is no question of rolling back the protests. Now, we will turn this movement into a state- wide agitation and will continue till the government wakes up and addresses our problems.