MYSURU: A 58-member farmer contingent headed to New Delhi to take part in the kisan rally to demand legal security to Minimum Support Price for farm produce, was arrested at Bhopal railway station on February 20, and had to settle for a temple tour, cops in tow. Police were in no mood to allow them to reach the national capital.
The farmers' representatives, including 23 women from Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts, visited temples in Ujjain, Kashi and Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Recalling the turn of events, farmer Nagaraj of Baradanapura said police entered their compartment at Bhopal railway station in the early hours, and forced them to deboard the train along with their luggage.
The farmers protested after they were bundled off to an old building without any basic facilities, forcing the police to shift them to a choultry. Though a few farmers had sustained injuries on their heads in the melee, they were not admitted to hospital fearing it would be played up in the media and they would get the support of local farmer forums. They were treated as outpatients, and medicines were prescribed.
As the farmers could not speak or understand Hindi and were not allowed to meet the local media, they staged protests from the terrace of the choultry, that drew the attention of the public and local media, which covered their detention. The police decided to shift them to Ujjain for a temple visit in a tow bus, escorted by police.
Women activists said they were forced to camp in places which had no proper facilities, and neither were they accustomed to the North Indian food they were given.
Mahadevaswamy, a farmer, claimed they were treated like Naxalites, and this changed only after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dashed off a letter to the Madhya Pradesh government, demanding that the farmers be allowed to take part in the protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
With the situation growing a bit sticky, Madhya Pradesh police washed their hands of the affair by putting them on a train to Kashi Vishwanath temple and arranging for a VIP darshan at Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. When the farmers insisted they be allowed to proceed to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh cops harassed them and followed them wherever they went. As a few of them were suffering from ill-health, UP police forced them to take a train to Karnataka from Varanasi railway station.