Indian police blasting ‘patriotic’ songs from loudspeakers at farmers’ protest

The farmers have vowed to continue their protest, calling for fresh agitation including a three-hour road blockade across the country on Saturday

Indian authorities heavily ramped up security along three main protest sites outside Delhi’s border, using cemented iron spikes, steel barricades and deploying hundreds of police in riot gear (AP)

Patriotic songs from Hindi movies are being blasted from loudspeakers at a farmers’ protest site in Delhi by the city’s police, as the authorities were criticised for erecting multiple new layers of barricades restricting demonstrators’ movement.

The main association of farmers’ unions spearheading the months-long protest movement, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Samiti, demanded on Tuesday that the police should stop “playing the emotional card” and shut down the “DJ” deployed outside the main protest site.

The issue of the musical bombardment has been sufficiently worrisome to the farmers that it has become one of their key conditions to resume stalled talks with the government to end the protest, which began with the passing in September of a set of laws which farmers fear will leave them worse off and beholden to big corporations.

“The central government should release all the arrested farmers before the talks. Restrictions on barricading, water, internet and washrooms should be lifted so that normalcy can be restored, and police DJs should be shut down near the pandal [temporary shelter],” said the union in a statement.

Videos of the songs being played circulated on social media as several called an attempt at psychological “mind games” by the Delhi Police, and some also drew significance from the particular choice of song.

The videos showed the emotional ballad named “Sandese aate hai” from Bollywood movie Border, which was based on the India-Pakistan war of 1971, being belted out from newly installed loudspeakers.  

The Delhi Police maintained that the sound system was put up to address the forces on duty, and that the songs were played to test its functioning.

Nonetheless, some were quick to note that a similar tactic was used by the Chinese army on the border at India’s Ladakh region, where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops blasted out Punjabi songs on loudspeakers amid the standoff between the two countries last year.  

The situation in Delhi remained tense on Tuesday with the farmers’ protests entering their third month. After the violent scenes on Republic Day last week, police appeared to be heavily fortifying their barricades at several points around the capital in anticipation of further clashes.  

In unprecedented measures overnight, police added several layers of security at the barricades on Delhi’s borders, turning protest camps into fortresses and further restricting the movement of the demonstrating farmers. 

More than 2,000 iron spikes have been embedded across the breadth of road, after farmers so easily rolled through barricades using tractors last Tuesday. Layers of cement were also added and other barricades were bolstered with barbed wire.

“One strip of the road was drilled and dug through. The nails were hammered into wooden frames and these were placed in the dug road, in an angle to face incoming vehicles to puncture their tires. After that, cement was poured on them to hold them in place,” police told The Indian Express.

The action by Delhi police riled up social media users with #FencingLikeChinaPak trending on Twitter, as users compared the scenes to the simmering borders between India and China and Pakistan. 

“Law and order situations demand temporary barricading. Permanent concrete barricading replete with spikes etc. become fortification. Fortifications mean the ruler is either AFRAID of the people or regards them as ENEMIES. In both situations, can we call it a democracy?” retired bureaucrat DC Asthana said in a tweet.

In a slew actions against protesting farmers, the internet was suspended in the areas where the protest continues and roads leading up to the protest site were blocked, halting the movement of water tankers.

The farmers’ union criticised the reported measures to restrict access to basic amenities, saying it was “part of multiple attacks being organised by the government”.  

"It appears that the government is extremely fearful of the rising tide of support for the ongoing protest from different states of India,” collective farmer union Samyukt Kisan Morcha added. 

The farmers have vowed to continue their protest, calling for fresh agitation by announcing a three-hour road blockade across the country on Saturday.