After a day of confrontation during the farmers’ protests, at the Singhu Border, the situation is relatively calm at the protest-sites. Meanwhile, the chief priest at the Akal Takht- Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singhji has stated that a resolution needs to be found out between the GOI and the protesters regarding the protests against the farm-laws. He also added that both parties need to take a few steps back to calm down the situation.

Rakesh Tikait, who has been jailed earlier 44 times, turned out to be a game-changer for the protesters at the Ghazipur protest site. Protesting continues to be prevalent at Karnal highway. Meanwhile, in the wake of the unrest triggered by farmer protests in the National Capital Region, the Haryana government on Friday extended the suspension of mobile Internet services, SMS services, and all dongle services in 17 districts across the state till 5 pm on January 30.  The affected districts in the state are Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal, Panipat, Hisar, Jind, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad, Rewari and Sirsa.

The suspension of these services was already in place in the districts of Sonipat, Palwal, and Jhajjar and that too has been extended till Saturday 5 pm. It is being suspected that the move is to blackout the efforts of the protesters to make their peaceful agenda public.

The protesters said that one of them, Ranjeet Singh was beaten up brutally by the Police and that the Delhi Police had placed charges on him. Another man, named Jaggi Baba was also known to be beaten on his head by the Police. Jaggi Baba had been at the protest site helping out in the Langar for the farmers. The photo of an injured & bleeding Jaggi Baba is doing rounds of the internet.

It was blamed by the protesters, that last night around 44 people were arrested by the Delhi Police, most of the arrested being from the Kundli Industrial area, to place false charges on them. Even on the morning of January 30, when many farmers sat for a hunger strike, gunshots were heard at the protest-sites. At Tikri border, Kanwar Grewal, a prominent singer, also gave speech at the podium highlighting that the need is to focus the discussions on the farm-laws, rather than other irrelevant issues that are causing distractions.

Also See: Overview of the Farmers’ unions in the protests

In a parallel development, in an all-party meeting, PM said that the GOI stands by the offer made to farmers with regards to the farm-laws.

The Chief of Akal Takht, the highest Sikh temporal authority, Giani Harpreet Singh has said that the flag hoisted at the Red Fort is Nishan Sahib and comparing the same with the Khalistan flag was not acceptable to the Sikhs.

Also See: An overview of Farmers’ protests-role of Charan Singh

Gyani Harpreet Singh said that the hoisting of the religious flag was not a crime and that it was done earlier too. “A lot of noise is being made about the hoisting of the Nishan Sahib flag on a pole at Red Fort which is baseless. Putting the Khalsa flags is nothing new. Every year, when the Guruparv is organized in New Delhi, such flags are put on the walls of many buildings including Red Fort,” he said.

“Indian soldiers also hoist this flag in Galwan valley. These flags were also seen on a tableau of Guru Teg Bahadur which was included in this year’s Republic Day parade,” he further added.