Farmers end 10-day march, claim victory
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Thousands of farmers on Wednesday ended their 10-day Kisan Kranti Yatra after arriving at Kisan Ghat in the national capital.
The Central government allowed them to enter Delhi in the early hours of Wednesday, ending the prolonged standoff between the police personnel and protesting farmers.
Led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Naresh Tikait, over 400 tractors carrying thousands of farmers reached Kisan Ghat. Tikait declared it as the "victory of farmers" and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has failed in its "motives".
"The farmers remained unfazed despite all the hardships. We have been marching for 12 days now, farmers are tired as well. We will continue to demand our rights but for now we are ending the march," Tikait told IANS at Kisan Ghat.
Shouting anti-BJP slogans, the farmers, with blisters on feet, reached Kisan Ghat at around 2 a.m. on Wednesday.
The farmers said they have reached an agreement with the Central government, which, according to them, has accepted "most of the demands".
They said that their prime demand of increasing the price of crops has been agreed upon by the government.
"A formal announcement in this regard will be made within six days by the government," Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), told IANS, shortly before the farmers called off their march.
The government has also assured the farmers of bearing the costs for the repair of tractors that were damaged during the standoff with the police personnel at Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border earlier on Tuesday.
The farmers raised slogans against the BJP-led Central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They also hailed former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh -- widely regarded as a hero of the country's peasants, and applauded the coming together of farmers.
The top leadership of the protesting farmers later addressed the gathering and said that they should be united in their future struggles too.
At around 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the farmers began dispersing from the Kisan Ghat.
Amid massive deployment of security personnel at Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border, the farmers reinforced their march to the national capital after obtaining necessary permissions from the administration.
Earlier on Tuesday, as the farmers tried to enter Delhi, police stopped them on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, triggering violence that left some of them injured.
The farmers have a charter of 15 demands including loan waiver and fair prices for crops, which they want implemented without delay.
Their demands include complete loan waiver, revoking ban on 10-year-old tractors in the National Capital Region (NCR), reduction in electricity tariff, implementation of the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Commission on remunerative prices and payment of sugarcane arrears among others.
The protesters started their 10-day march from Haridwar in Uttarakhand led by the BKU and on Tuesday, they reached the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border. There was heavy deployment of security forces at the border.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
