Source : NDTV
New Delhi: Four years ago, when lakhs of farmers from across the country arrived at Delhi’s borders to protest the three farm laws, they were met with fortifications that might give Genghis Khan pause – concrete barriers, barbed wire, shipping container walls, and nail strips to deter tractors from pushing through.
Waves of protesting farmers also faced lathi charges, tear gas shelling, water cannons, rubber pellets and, in some cases, even live ammunition that resulted in multiple deaths and injuries.
Fast-forward to 2024 and the ‘Delhi Chalo 2.0′ has been met with similar measures, with at least one notable addition – a nod, perhaps, to flak police received after trying to stop the farmers with force.
The question – how do you solve a problem like an army of farmers marching on the national capital, provisioned for at least six months and determined not to back down till their demands are met?
A possible answer – puncture their ear drums.
NDTV understands Delhi Police have deployed LRADs, or Long Range Acoustic Devices, or crowd-control sound cannons, which function as uni-directional (or one-directional), non-lethal, sonic weapons and can fire bursts of (very) loud sounds that can damage protesters’ hearing.
The LRAD was developed by the United States military in the early 2000s and can double as a microphone, for playback device, making it a multi-purpose crowd control weapon.
Delhi Police got LRADs in 2013 as part of its efforts to counter protests and dharnas in the city, with reports indicating five such were ordered at a cost of over Rs 30 lakh each.
Apart from these weapons, police have also been undergoing firing drills (non-lethal ammo, including tear gas) in an open area in the northern part of the city, in videos accessed by NDTV.
Police have also down key border points that link Delhi to satellite towns in neighbouring states, such as Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, and banned large gatherings till March 12.
Over 200 farmer unions – and an estimated one lakh farmers – began moving towards Delhi Tuesday, to demand, among other things, legal status for (and expansion of) minimum support price, or MSP.
It didn’t take long for violence to break out… just minutes, in fact.
A little after noon farmers gathered at Shambhu, on the Punjab-Haryana border, were met with at least two dozen tear gas shells, triggering the first pitched battle of ‘Delhi Chalo 2.0’ with farmers throwing stones, forcing their way past barriers, and throwing barricades off flyovers.
Hours of clashes resulted between farmers and police – some were told to show “more aggression” in stopping protesters from entering Delhi – before night-time fell and a truce followed.
“It is ceasefire for today. We will try again tomorrow morning,” one farmer said.
Day 2 dawned with a relative lull, with the focus more on stalemates in talks between the farmers and the government. Junior Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda said this morning farmer unions needed to understand the government would not take a decision in haste, and appealed for calm.
“I will also urge unions to not get influenced by politics…” he declared.
Meanwhile, it isn’t just the police who are getting creative.
Farmers have been seen flying kites to counter drones used by Haryana Police to drop smoke bombs. The strategy involves entangling a drone’s rotors with kite string and causing it to crash.
