Event

Nishan Sahib at the Red Fort

Name: Nishan Sahib at the Red Fort
Start: 2021-01-26

Jan 26, 2021 · Morcha & the Long Reach

Pretext for "Khalistani" campaign

Who: Farmers, mostly Sikh, on the Republic Day tractor rally against the three farm laws, called by the farmer unions; the Delhi Police; and the activists Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana, whom the unions accused of provoking farmers.

What: On January 26, 2021 the unions and the police had agreed routes for the rally, one of them from Tikri via Nangloi and Najafgarh. ThePrint's timeline shows barricades broken from about 9 am and tear gas and lathi charges at several points. Protesters reached the Red Fort around 1:30 pm. At about 2 pm they waved flags from the ramparts, among them farmers' union flags and the Nishan Sahib, and at about 3 pm one protester placed a Nishan Sahib on a dome. Police cleared the fort by 3:40 pm.

A 27-year-old farmer, Navneet Singh of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, died at ITO when his tractor overturned. ThePrint reported that the post-mortem recorded head injuries and no bullet wound. Delhi Police said the tractor overturned after hitting a barricade, while some farmers at the scene said he was shot. Delhi's police chief said 394 officers were injured, and more than 25 cases were filed with 19 arrests. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha said it was not part of the violence and blamed "anti-social elements". The unions postponed their march to Parliament.

Where: Delhi: the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders, ITO and the Red Fort.

Why it mattered: Within hours a claim spread that the tricolour had been pulled down and replaced by a "Khalistan flag". Alt News, in a fact-check republished by The Wire, found it false. The flag went up on an empty pole, the tricolour on the Lahore Gate was untouched, and the flags were Nishan Sahib. The writer Amandeep Sandhu told the fact-check that triangular flags with the Khanda "are not Khalistan flags". Those who pushed the claim included the BJP's Delhi spokesperson Harish Khurana, the OpIndia website, and the Times Now editor Rahul Shivshankar, who first said the tricolour had been replaced and later said the flag was that of a union or a religious sect.

The Wire reported that the unions blamed Sidhu and Sidhana for provoking the crowd and also accused the police of diverting the rally onto Ring Road.

Counsel: Bhai Ajmer Singh

For Bhai Ajmer Singh the Lal Qila episode of the kisan morcha is where his break with friends came. He had spoken in the leaders' favour at Delhi and had argued that the decision making body be restructured to accommodate men; it went the opposite way. He grants that a minimum of jabta, discipline, should have been kept, and that Lakha Sidhana, Navdeep Singh Jalbera and others did speak sharply. He had backed the morcha at Delhi because what he saw there felt like nothing before.

ਖਾੜਕੂ ਤੇ ਨਕਸਲੀ ਲਹਿਰ ਦੀਆਂ ਵੱਡੀਆਂ ਘਟਨਾਵਾਂ 'ਤੇ Ajmer Singh ਦਾ ਅਹਿਮ Interview (Ajmer Singh on the great events of the Kharku and Naxalite movements, on his political autobiography ਖਾੜਕੂ ਲਹਿਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਅੰਗ ਸੰਗ), Pro Punjab TV

Read it on the timeline See its connections

Sources

Chaos as Indian farmers enter Delhi's Red Fort, clash with police, Al Jazeera. aljazeera.com
Fact-Check: Flags Hoisted at Red Fort Neither Replaced Tricolour, Nor Promoted Khalistan, The Wire (republished from Alt News). m.thewire.in
Breaking barriers to Red Fort march: timeline of how farmer protest turned ugly within hours, ThePrint. theprint.in
Not shot but crushed by tractor: post mortem on farmer who died in Delhi protests reveals, ThePrint. theprint.in
Indian farmers call off parliament march after deadly violence (28 January 2021), Al Jazeera. aljazeera.com
Who Are Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana, and Why Are Farmers' Unions Angry With Them?, The Wire. m.thewire.in

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