Global NGO objects to 'fortification' of Delhi with barbed wires, spikes, concrete trenches

Counterview Desk
The Indian government must uphold the constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression as well as to assemble peacefully. The continuous crackdown against the farmers aimed at suppressing dissent through various means is unconstitutional, the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) has said.
In a statement, FORUM-ASIA, which has a regional network of 81 member organisations across 21 Asian countries, with consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and consultative relationship with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, has taken strong exception to the authorities have fortifying the borders of Delhi using barbed wires, spikes and concrete trenches to block the entry of protestors into the capital city.

Text:

On January 26, 2021, protestors called for a tractor march to New Delhi, protesting against the new farm laws enacted by the Indian government in September 2020 and demanded the repeal of the laws, which are pro-corporate and against agrarian interests. The peaceful march turned violent as the police started using tear gas and batons to dispel the protestors, leaving a farmer dead and at least hundreds injured.
Immediately, the authorities declared orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code -- which prohibits assembly of more than five persons -- on the borders of New Delhi. Hundreds of protestors have been arrested and cases have been filed against farmer leaders of the protest.
‘The Indian authorities should end the use of excessive force against peaceful protests and ensure the constitutional rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Recent democratic protests in India including the anti-citizenship law movement have been responded to with police brutality, which is against international human rights law and standards,’ said FORUM-ASIA’s Executive Director Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu.
The authorities have now ‘fortified’ the borders of Delhi using barbed wires, spikes and concrete trenches to block the entry of protestors into the capital city. The government claimed that the farmers’ protest has been infiltrated by ‘Khalistani’ separatist groups, seen as an attempt to malign and discredit the protestors.
To further curtail the protests, at the request of the Indian Home Ministry, Twitter temporarily withheld accounts of a news magazine, protest leaders and organisations including Kisan Ekta Morcha, a farmers’ collective that were providing updates on the protests.The accounts were unblocked on the same day, prompting the Ministry to issue a notice to Twitter, threatening penal action for unblocking these accounts.
Internet services were also shut down in the protest areas since 26 January, denying peoples’ right to seek, receive and impart information. At least eight journalists who were covering the farmers’ protest in New Delhi are facing criminal charges, including sedition, while the media has been arbitrarily and illegally denied entry into the protest site.
‘As about half of India’s 1.3 billion people still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, the Indian government, instead of vilifying and discrediting the protesting farmers, should engage in conversation with them to ensure that their legitimate demands are fulfilled. Dissent, an essential characteristic of a constitutional democracy, should be encouraged and not criminalised,’ said Shamini.
FORUM-ASIA urges the Indian authorities to end the crackdown on protesting farmers and calls upon the authorities to ensure their fundamental right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

Background of the protest

Since November 2020, several farmers’ organisations, movements, and trade unions have been protesting against the new farm laws enacted by the Indian government in September 2020 and demanding the repeal of the laws, which are pro-corporate and against agrarian interests.

In December 2020, as protests intensified, Delhi Police prevented protesters from entering Delhi, forcing farmers to start a sit-in protest at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur which are the border areas between New Delhi and its neighbouring states.
The three contentious laws that the farmers are protesting against are: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020; and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020. The opposition political parties have accused the government of passing these crucial bills in the Parliament in a hurried manner without adequate discussion, and denying their request for sending the bills to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny.
The apprehensions of farmers are that the new amendments would lead to the abolition of minimum support price (MSP), which guarantees a minimum selling price for the crops. The amendments also replace traditional ‘mandis’ (local markets) where farmers sell their crops directly to dealers, instead allowing corporations to buy from the farmers. The farmers claim that this would allow private players including big corporations to hoard essential commodities, which was illegal before the passing of these new laws.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog