NEW DELHI: Indian police imposed heavy security and closed several main roads around New Delhi on Wednesday, a day after farmers went on the rampage in the capital, leaving one person dead and several hundred injured.

The violence marked a dramatic escalation in a standoff between the government and thousands of farmers who have been camped on the outskirts of Delhi since late November demanding that new agricultural reforms be scrapped.

On Tuesday — during the annual Republic Day parade — convoys of farmers on tractors smashed through barricades to converge on the city centre, seeing off police baton charges and volleys of tear gas.

One farmer was killed in what police said was an accident when his tractor overturned after hitting a barricade.

Delhi Police Commissioner S. N. Shrivastava said in a press conference that 394 policemen had been injured.

“On 25th, we had mutually agreed on the terms, conditions and route of the farmer unions’ march (on tractors) in Delhi. But they backstabbed (us) on those agreements which led to the violence,” Shrivastava said.

Around the city, security forces fought running battles with demonstrators.

Farmers also laid into police with branches and metal bars, and hijacked buses used to block their convoys.

One video showed police jumping down a seven-metre (20-foot) wall to escape baton-swinging protestors near the historic Red Fort landmark.

Farmers there broke through police lines and ran their own emblem up a flagpole to cheers from the large crowd, before being dispersed from the ramparts by security forces.

On one main road, people on rooftops threw petals on the tractor convoys.

Elsewhere people cheered and applauded as farmers went past waving Indian flags and blowing horns.

As night fell, the farmers retreated to the camps outside the city where they have been braving Delhi’s chilly winter nights for months now.

Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah ordered 15 companies of paramilitaries to boost security forces in the capital, according to media reports.

On Wednesday morning a number of major roads were blocked as police and security forces set up barricades, leading to major traffic congestion. Riot police were stationed near the Red Fort.

“We take this illegal protest, violence and damage to the protected heritage monument Red Fort, where they raised religious and farm union flags, very seriously. Video footage is being scrutinised to identify those involved.

No one will be spared,” the commissioner, Shrivastava, added.

He said that at least 19 people had already been arrested and 50 others were being questioned in detention.

The unrest was a major embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, for whom the farmer protests represent the biggest challenge since coming to power in 2014.

Farming has long been a political minefield, with nearly 70 percent of the population drawing its livelihood from agriculture in the vast nation of 1.3 billion people.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2021