For more than two months, thousands of farmers have converged at Delhi's borders, protesting against three contentious farm laws. While multiple rounds of talks with the government had failed to resolve the deadlock, there had had been several developments in the final days of January.
A violent clash with the Delhi Police as the protesters took out a Republic Day tractor rally had led to some of the farm groups disassociating themselves from the agitation. Almost at the same time, as the UP police called for the farmers to remove themselves from the protest site, and power and water was cut off, a video of farm leader Rakesh Tikait went viral. Even as officials called for the protestors to be removed and some locals agitated against them, the emotional video has prompted thousands to join the farmers protesting at the border.
Over the last few days, there has been a fresh influx of farmers who have taken it upon themselves to lend support to the agitators. But at the numbers swelled, activist and politician Yogendra Yadav alleged that a train had been diverted to prevent farmers from reaching Delhi.
"Ferozpur Mumbai Punjab Mail diverted from Rohtak to Rewari this morning to prevent about 1000 farmers from reaching Delhi," he tweeted on Monday morning.
While there has been no official response to this allegation, the Western Railway has indeed diverted trains over the last few days to avoid disruptions due to the farmers' agitation. As a result, various trains that connect Mumbai to Punjab have had their routes adapted.
However, Punjab Mail, which runs between Mumbai's CSMT and Punjab's Firozpur has not been mentioned in the updates shared by Western Railway officials over the last day.
