On February 20, a group of 58 farmers who were planning to participate in the Kisan demonstration in New Delhi to seek legal protection for the Minimum Support Price for agricultural commodities were detained at the Bhopal train station. As a result, they were forced to settle for a tour of the temples accompanied by police. The national capital could not be allowed to be reached by the police.
23 women from the districts of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar, who were among the farmers’ delegates, visited the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Kashi, and Ujjain.
Farmer Nagaraj from Baradanapura recounted how the incident happened: early in the morning, police broke into their compartment at the Bhopal railway station and made them get off the train with their belongings.
The farmers staged a protest when the police moved them to a chicken coop and hauled them off to an outdated structure devoid of even the most basic amenities. Despite a few farmers having head injuries during the brawl, they chose not to go to the hospital for fear that the media would highlight their injuries and local farmer forums would rally behind them. They received outpatient care and prescriptions for medications.
The farmers held demonstrations from the terrace of the chicken farm, drawing attention from the public and local media that reported their imprisonment, despite their inability to speak or comprehend Hindi and their prohibition from meeting with the media. The police made the decision to take them, guarded by police, in a tow bus to Ujjain so they could see temples.
Women activists said they were fed food from North India that they were not used to and that they were made to camp in unsanitary conditions.
Farmers like Mahadevaswamy said they were treated like Naxalites, and things only improved when Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hurriedly sent a letter to the Madhya Pradesh government requesting permission for the farmers to participate in the demonstration in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
As things became a little awkward, the Madhya Pradesh police organized for a VIP darshan at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and placed them on a train to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in order to distance themselves from the issue. Uttar Pradesh police harassed and followed the farmers wherever they went as they demanded to be allowed to go to Delhi. UP police had them board a train from Varanasi railway station to Karnataka since several of them were unwell.