Farmers cancel foot march to the Parliament on February 1

A day after the tractor parade to Delhi spiralled into chaos and violence, farmer unions on Wednesday cancelled the planned of the foot march to Parliament on February 1 when the Budget is to be presented in the House.

The farmers had decided to march to Parliament to mark their protest against the three contentious farm laws passed by the government in September last year.

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The farmers have now said they will hold jan sabhas (public meetings) and a one-day fast on January 30 to mark their condemnation against Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The protests will be against the forces that killed Gandhi, said a farm leader.

Farmer leader Shivkumar Kakka said, “We’ve video clips and will expose how the conspiracy was hatched to defame our movement.”

“The farmers were peaceful and a government conspiracy was designed to sabotage the rally. Despite attempts to break it, 99.9% of the farmers were peaceful. The rally fell prey to the government conspiracy,” said the farm leader.

During a press conference, Delhi police chief SN Shrivastava said, “We held five rounds of meetings with farmer leaders before the tractor rally. Farmer leaders have betrayed us, they did not follow conditions set for the tractor parade.”

The violence that happened on January 26 left almost 349 police officers injured, and also one farmer died.