Heavens would not have fallen if farmers were allowed to enter Delhi  

Heavens would not have fallen if agitating farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were allowed to enter Delhi.

But they were denied permission on really flimsy grounds. Farmers on trucks and tractors would have clogged Delhi and disrupted or paralysed city life, the government stressed. If they had to enter the city, they would be forced to camp at ‘back of beyond’ Burari, which is far from the centre of power on Raisina Hills.

Central Delhi, however, has hardly been a stranger to protests or large crowds. Not too long ago protestors were allowed to march along Rajpath and assemble at the Boat Club, which is barely two kilometres from the Indian Parliament.

I have personally witnessed four huge gatherings at the Boat Club where tens of thousands of protestors, literally lakhs, gathered and left Delhi peacefully. Of course, there were minor disruptions in the city’s normal life. But Delhi never came to a halt just because lakhs of people from outside had converged on the city centre for four to six hours.

The first such event that I saw and reported, I think, took place in 1981. Indira Gandhi had given a call to farmers to come to Delhi. They came not just in droves, not even in thousands but reached Delhi in lakhs. They were all over. But they finally gathered at the Boat Club near Parliament. I distinctly remember the two separate stages were setup. One was a huge platform where the entire Congress top brass was sitting. And close to this huge stage was a smaller one from where Indira Gandhi addressed the massive gathering.

The entire India Gate area on both sides of Raj Path right from Boat Club to National Stadium and beyond was brimming with the sea of humanity. The event passed off peacefully and Delhi continued with its routine life with little difficulty. But there were no bitter memories of the event. The Congress claimed around 25 lakh people had converged in the capital. Delhi police estimated the number to be around 15 lakhs.

The second massive gathering in my memory took place in 1985 when Congress President and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi called upon people to assemble at Delhi to pay tributes to Indira Gandhi, less than a year after her assassination. Lakhs responded to his call. The venue of the rally was again the Boat Club and lakhs filled up the entire India Gate area, once again from Boat Club to National Stadium. Delhi has forgotten the event now which is a testimony to the fact that the gathering left behind no bitter memory.

Old timers, especially journalists, still remember lakhs of kisan from western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana responding to late Mahendra Singh Tikait’s call of Delhi chalo in support of farmers’ demands in 1988. Delhi’s Boat club and India Gate area once again filled up with peacefully agitating farmers. It was not just a one-day event. Farmers had then stayed put for, if memory serves right, over two weeks. Jat farmers in their colourful pagris, puffing hookahs in the mornings left an overwhelming aroma of tobacco in the entire area.

The VHP rally in support of Ram temple at Ayodhya was equally massive. This rally, I think, took place in 1991 at the same venue. I had climbed up the dais to witness the crowd and all I could see were people everywhere.

The excuse that if agitating farmers from Punjab and other parts of Delhi come to the city centre, they will disrupt city life seems baseless given earlier experiences. Even between 2011 and 2014, the Ramleela Ground and central Delhi saw massive surges of protestors which left Delhi none the worse.

The fact is that governments are now less tolerant of peoples’ democratic right to protest. Delhi has been a witness to many such events earlier.

If farmers waiting at the Delhi borders were allowed entry into the national capital, heavens would not have fallen. They could be allowed to march to the Boat Club and still normal life in Delhi and the daily rhythm would have continued unhindered, with only one part of Delhi affected by the protests and that too for limited hours.

The authorities could have requested farmers to enter Delhi at night and settle down at the Boat Club and Ramleela Maidan by dawn. Heavens would not have fallen.