On September 27, the Samyukta Kishan Morcha called for Bharat Bandh against the three laws made for agriculture.
This Bharat Bandh created a lot of chaos in the daily routine traffic; highways and roads were blocked, trains were canceled and almost thousands were stuck in the jam especially in the northern part of India. India witnessed rallies at many places and till now does not report any kind of injury or harm.Â
The impact of the Bharat Bandh was mainly experienced in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. In addition to these states, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, and Jharkhand also held rallies. During the protest, protestors blocked the roads, highways, and railway tracks at several places since morning and ended in the evening. That affected approx 50 trains as per the Central Railway. Meanwhile the shops, markets remained open and does not appear to be affected by Bharat Bandh.
The security at the borders of Noida, Delhi, and Ghaziabad was beefed up after the farmers’ protest caused heavy traffic in the morning. It affected the normal life of locals from Punjab as the Bandh was followed by a large number of people and even it was completed shut down in many places. The Bharat Bandh showed some effect in the pockets of Rajasthan where the mandis and local markets were closed and they participated in the rally.Â
The Bharat Bandhh was not a success as in many states everyone followed the normal routine; like in Arunachal Pradesh, all the services were active and everything followed the daily routine and went to work. Even in Assam, there was no effect of the bandh; everything was operated as normal the transportation, banks, and markets. Whereas in Bihar, the state experienced mixed participation in the protest as many took part in the rallies but many opted to follow the normal routine and the same goes with Chhattisgarh, where the large urban markets remained closed
The hospital, pharmacy, emergency services, and essential services were exempted from Bharat Bandhh in the midst of all the protests. The protest failed in many states; in Goa, the banks, transports, services, markets remained open as usual. Puducherry got a mixed response as most of the services were unaffected but from Kozhikode, a hostile incident was reported.
Political activists from Congress, TDP, and a few other parties took part in the protest and supported the Bharat bandh in Telangana. Karnataka saw the initial effects of the protest but later returned to normal life and the services went on as usual. Meanwhile, even after getting the support from YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh, the state did not experience so much response from the locals and the services were functional.
The bandh also got support from many of the non-NDA parties like Congress, Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Swaraj India, and Left Parties. In Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress Government also announced to support the Bharat Bandh. The ruling party LDF and the opposition Congress-led KSRTC bus services off and also many trade unions were seen taking part in it.
As far as everyday life in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat goes, the protest had no impact, but highways were reported to have been blocked.
There is a lot of talk about agriculture laws around the world, and farmers have been protesting it for years. Earlier, the protest was led by some women, but today in Ghaziabad Border, there is no active involvement of women.
There are three laws that are creating tension among the farmers of the country: the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce Act 2020, the Essential Commodities Amendment Act 2020, and the Farmers’ Produce Market Development Act 2020.
The Parliament passed these three laws in September 2020. Farmers claimed the laws would force them to beg to big corporations and end the Mandi system, but the government has refuted all allegations.
