As the farmers continue their agitation against the three new farm laws at various borders of the national capital, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Thursday announced that no protester will enter Delhi during the three-hour nationwide 'chakka jam' on 6 February.
Tikait, leading the stir since November with his supporters, said the movement at Delhi's outskirts could continue till October this year and would be supported by villagers.
Speaking to reporters at the Ghazipur border protest site, he said farmers will provide food and water to the people who will get stuck due to the 'chakka jam'.
"There will be a three-hour-long 'chakka jam' on 6 February. It won't take place in Delhi, but everywhere outside Delhi. The people who will get stuck in it will be given food and water. We will tell them what the government is doing to us," Tikait said.
When asked to comment on the nails fixed near barricades at the Ghazipur (Delhi-Uttar Pradesh) border, Tikait said, "We were growing crops there, and they (government) fixed nails."
Responding to comments made by international celebrities on the farmers' protest, he said, "There is no harm in Hollywood artists supporting the farmers' movement. I don't know them personally, but they are supporting without any expectation."
The influential farmer leader, credited with reviving the farmers' protest after a brief lull following the 26 January violence, said the movement for the repeal of the contentious laws could continue till October.
"The framework for furthering the movement centres on villages. Two tractors will come from villages and stay here for five days. Then, they will leave, to be replaced by other two tractors," he explained.
About the stringent security measures and road blockades at Ghazipur, he said the Delhi Police should be asked about that as it is they who have done that.
"The farmers will pull out all iron nails of the government, and also pull out those fixed at protest sites one by one," he said, on the police repositioning nails at the protest sites.
On further talks between the farmers and government to break the impasse, Tikait said that decision will be taken by the committee of the farmers' unions.
Tikait, who has maintained that the ongoing protests are apolitical despite opposition parties reaching protest sites, said politicians visiting Ghazipur are "not doing it as part of any agenda" but only to know about the farmers.
On the protesters being dubbed as "Khalistanis" and "anti-national" by some people, the BKU national spokesperson said these charges are a "thing of the past," and it was time for everyone to "move on."
Meanwhile, on Thursday, many farmers camped in temporary tarpaulin-roofed shelters that have come up on a stretch of the Delhi-Meerut highway, while many had their tractor-trailers double up as their resting place; scores others stretched out on mattresses put on the key road that until November had thousands of vehicles passing through daily.
The protesters withstood the night cold and morning drizzle, but spells of rain towards the evening brought their numbers at Ghazipur down.
The Ghaziabad police estimated a crowd size of 2,000 to 3,000 here during the day. Police and paramilitary forces, deployed in large numbers here in the wake of the Republic Day furore, have stayed on the ground, while multi-layered barricades and concertina wires remain in place along with iron nails studded on roads to prevent any movement towards Delhi.
Iron nails, which were studded on the roads around the protest site, were earlier thought to be removed, a move that drew jibes from protesters against the stringent security measures, even as the Delhi Police said the spikes were just being "repositioned."
(With inputs from agencies)
