Abortive bid to stop farmers’ ‘Trolley Times’

New Delhi: Delhi Police made an abortive bid two days ago on Tuesday to force closure of “Trolley Times,” an independent biweekly broadsheet newspaper of the farmers protesting on Delhi borders, by nabbing its producer and leftist activist Navkiran Natt.

Its special cell personnel, however, left empty-handed as she was not at the residence of CPI (ML-Liberation) Delhi state secretary Ravi Rai in East Delhi they wanted to raid since she was away at the India International Centre in a memorial lecture on “women reporters in difficult times.” Navkiran is part of the collective of young people helping the farmers bring out their own newspaper to circulate their news after finding the biased coverage by most of the dailies.

Ravi Rai refused to open his door for the three cops to search his house for the activist and refused to respond to their queries unless they show any legal notice or warrant and told them to better come to his office. In a detailed e-mail, Rai said there was no woman in the police team to interrogate or arrest Navkiran and that too after 6 PM.

He said the police team left after a lot of arguments as he refused to yield since it was a clear attempt to terrorise the activists who are associated with the farmers’ movement. He recalled how Delhi Police had taken activist Disha Ravi from her house in Bengaluru and then brought her to Delhi without any permission from any Bengaluru court.

The farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh with a sprinkle of them from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, continued their protest at Delhi borders for the 92nd day on Thursday, insisting to continue their agitation until the government rolls back three contentious farm laws enacted last September.

So far, they have been staging the protest on the borders except on the Republic Day when they had taken out a tractor parade on the city’s outer ring road with police permission and some broke the agreement to run into the capital and create violence at the Red Fort. They are, however, contemplating to enter the capital any day and try to encircle the Parliament House, may be when the Parliament is in session from March 8, and start sowing the lawns of the Rajpath for cultivation.