BACKGROUNDER
Indian farmers intensify protests, testing Modi's promised market miracle

Issued on: 09/12/2020 - 

A policeman stands in front of protesters during a nationwide strike called by farmers in Mumbai, India, on December 8, 2020. AFP - INDRANIL MUKHERJEE

Text by: Leela JACINTO

If Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government calculated that the pandemic would enable it to rush through reforms deregulating the agricultural sector, it was a miscalculation. Protesters have descended on the capital in an extraordinary mobilisation that presents the Hindu nationalist government with one of its biggest challenges.

In late March, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi enacted the world’s toughest nationwide coronavirus lockdown, it sparked a deadly mass exodus from Indian cities to villages that shocked the nation. With no work, money or ability to survive in shutdown cities, millions of migrant workers took to their feet, setting off on the only path out of destitution available: long journeys back to their villages.

Rural India has consistently provided a counter narrative to the headlines trumpeting the country’s economic boom for decades. More than half of India’s 1.3 billion people still depend in some way on farming, but agriculture accounts for only 17 percent of the economy. Shrinking farm plot sizes, poverty, harvest uncertainties and indebtedness drive tens of thousands of Indian farmers to suicide every year and forces millions to migrate to cities.

But when a harsh lockdown was suddenly imposed, millions of Indians calculated that their villages – with tiny plots of cultivable land and informal networks of support and loans – were their only survival option.

Months later, some of the highways that led migrant workers in New Delhi to their villages to weather the lockdown are blocked by a reverse wave of farmers descending on the Indian capital to protest against three new farm laws.

Driving mud-splattered tractors, trailers, trucks and minivans packed with produce, pots, pans and blankets, tens of thousands of angry farmers, mainly from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, have blocked the arterial roads into the country’s capital since November 26.

Setting up a giant sit-in, the farmers have braved the North Indian winter and defied government attempts to move them to outlying grounds, while protests have spread to neighbouring states, presenting one of the biggest challenges to the Modi administration since it came to power in 2014. India’s ruling Hindu nationalist government has a record of brutally stifling dissent. But farmers are a critical voting bloc in India and though the government and its supporters have tried to vilify and downplay the protests, they have not succeeded.

On Tuesday, railways and highways were blocked across India as farmers, trade unions and opposition parties answered a nationwide solidarity shutdown call. The widespread action saw Home Minister Amit Shah call for a meeting with farming leaders late Tuesday, ahead of a sixth round of talks on Wednesday.

Protesters are demanding a total repeal of the new laws, which make farmers sell their produce on the open market – including agribusiness corporations and supermarket chains – instead of through state-run institutions that guarantee a minimum price.

Modi maintains the “reforms are needed for development,” warning that, “we cannot build the next century with the laws of the previous century."

But as the curtain falls on a year that saw a pandemic ravage lives and livelihoods, India’s farmers are not persuaded by the promise of markets providing next-generation solutions to longstanding problems.

The resolve of the farmers and their extraordinary mobilisation, gathering supporters across sectors, has caught the Modi administration by surprise and is a cautionary tale for governments managing post-pandemic economic recoveries.

Using ‘the cover of the pandemic’

The latest crisis was sparked in September, when the government crammed complex legislative changes into three new laws and pushed them through parliament during an opposition walkout. They were passed as Covid-19 rages through India, with the country reporting the world’s second-highest number of cases.

“In the midst of a pandemic, laws with far-reaching impact on more than 50 percent of the population and on 100 percent of the food security of India were passed. The government used the cover of the pandemic to push through the laws, believing they would not be resisted. This has been bulldozed through parliament with no debate, no discussions,” explained Amandeep Sandhu, a writer who documented agricultural practices in Punjab in his book, “Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines”.

Since he came to power in 2014, Modi has opted for shock announcements with little preparedness that have left the populace scrambling to cope with the fallout – humanitarian and economic – of his populist moves.

On November 8, 2016, for instance, the prime minister made a surprise evening television appearance to announce that, starting after midnight, the nation’s 500 and 1,000-rupee notes would be demonetised or no longer considered legal tender. Economists estimate the move wiped at least one percent off India’s GDP and cost at least 1.5 million jobs.

Four years and a pandemic later, Indian farmers are sceptical of the Modi administration’s rushed, pro-business panaceas. “Neoliberalism has hollowed out state sectors. The health sector has collapsed, the education sector has collapsed. Now the government is fronting a crony capitalist move to agriculture,” said Sandhu.

‘Villainous’ state markets and middlemen

Economists agree India’s agricultural sector needs repair. The pressure of a growing population is shrinking land holdings, with more than 68 percent of farmers owning less than one or two hectares of land. Yields are often so low that economists estimate more than half of India’s farmers do not cultivate enough to sell.

But the urban manufacturing and service sectors have not produced enough jobs to get the working age population off the land. With unemployment rising in the aftermath of the pandemic, the situation is likely to deteriorate.

The new laws promise farmers freedom from “villainous and exploitative” government-regulated wholesale markets – called mandis – and commissioning agents who act as middlemen, managing sales, storage, transportation and even finance deals.

These middlemen – known as arhtias – also extend credit to farmers, serving as “bankers of the last resort” for desperate farmers, but levying crippling interest rates and repayment conditions in the process.

Loans for night trips to hospitals

News footage in recent days of farmers demonstrating to retain arhtias – viewed by the urban middle class as loan sharks driving the most hapless to suicide – has been another shocker for Indians not living off the land.

But Sandhu – who spent childhood vacations making trips to mandis with farming family members – explains that arhtias are part of the social and economic landscape in rural Punjab.

“They provide easily accessible credit for farmers that banks do not: if a sudden crop disease needs pesticides, a family illness in the middle of the night requires money to go to hospital, an urgent vet call for a sick cow... they play a pivotal role,” said Sandhu.

“What we need is regulation of interest rates and a recovery course for middle men who are extending credit. There is a need for ombudsmen,” he explained. “Now the entire system is being discarded for what, we don’t know. What we do know for sure is it would throw out millions of people from their livelihoods.”

Slick presentations with no answers

The government has attempted to downplay the protests as outbursts by poorly educated farmers who do not understand what’s in their best interests.

But in media interviews after successive rounds of talks, farm union members have proved to be better informed than the government.

In an interview with a Punjabi language TV station earlier this month, for instance, Rajinder Singh, vice president of a farmers union, explained how Indian Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar displayed a slick presentation to union representatives at recent talks. But when asked about details of the laws, including implementation across states, the minister was unable to provide answers.

Tuesday’s nationwide blockade has triggered another round of negotiations, but with both sides unwilling to back down so far, few can predict how the latest crisis will end.

“The government is really worried because farmers are an important vote bank, North Indian farmers are unhappy and the government didn’t gauge their resilience. Now it’s a deadlock and it’s a matter of who blinks first,” explained Sandhu. “Modi sees himself as a strongman, he has never backed down on anything – it’s part of his strongman image that appeals to voters.”

But the people of Punjab and Haryana also have a long, celebrated history of toughness and bloody-minded intransigence that is gaining increasing respect in a country with a vast appetite for strongmen. The winter of discontent in North India looks set to be a long one.

India Just Had the Biggest Protest in World History
Will it make a difference?

By NITISH PAHWA DEC 09, 2020 SLATE.COM

Protesters scuffle with police during a rally in support of the nationwide general strike called by farmers against the recent agricultural reforms in Allahabad, India, on Tuesday. 

Sanjay Kanojia/AFP via Getty Images

In late November, what may have been the single largest protest in human history took place in India, as tens of thousands of farmers marched to the capital to protest proposed new legislation and upward of 250 million people around the subcontinent participated in a 24-hour general strike in solidarity. This massive people’s movement has gained attention worldwide and, moreover, forced the government to come meet the protesters where they are instead of just cracking down and brutalizing them, a first in the six years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule.

To comprehend this moment, you have to understand the long plight of India’s farmers. To a much greater degree than other major economies, India retains its mass agrarian traditions alongside its developed industrial and tech sectors—agriculture is still the largest source of livelihood for most Indians, employing more than half the subcontinent’s workforce, mostly in small and local farms instead of agribusiness behemoths. Yet the farmers themselves, despite feeding so much of the nation and providing a significant bedrock for India’s economy, have always had a brutal time of it. Colonial-induced famines (temporarily solved by the reforms of the 1960s “Green Revolution,” which later would cause its own issues), bureaucratic and oppressive government policy, exploitation by feudal-minded landholders, and, of course, climate change have continually left India’s land workers among the worst off the world over. Even before the acceleration in mass despair augured by the pandemic and ensuing locust invasion, farmers had been left completely strapped by crippling debts, losses on marketed goods, and devastation from extreme weather; long-troubling suicide rates reached staggering new heights. Those who say India has “too many farmers,” as a writer at Indian business publication Mint and a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute have claimed, are completely missing the point: The country has bled so many other jobs involving so-called unskilled labor, especially lately, that many of the country’s poorest, illiterate, and otherwise disenfranchised have no other labor recourse, especially with no workable safety net on hand.


So, after the government took action that seemed to depress farmers’ welfare even further, land workers weren’t going to take it anymore.

In September, Modi rammed three pieces of legislation through Parliament that supposedly serve to remove taxes and other government-imposed financial burdens on farmers to help them directly sell to corporations and encourage private investment in agriculture, following Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s deregulatory agenda. It sounds fine when you describe it so pithily: get rid of the red tape and give farmers free access to bigger markets. But it’s not so simple. The supposedly onerous business barriers the laws remove help provide farmers a guaranteed, timely sale and distribution market for their goods, stop businesses from hoarding produce, keep prices at a fair level, and prevent small farmers from being taken advantage of by agribusiness corporations. Modi’s new laws nominally give farmers a better deal by allowing them to directly sell more produce to more places. What they really do is take away the remaining meager support granted to farmers already deprived of much of the support they need and allow them to be exploited by big agribusiness firms and corporations. With these protections—including guaranteed government-based marketplaces and frameworks to establish minimum prices for goods—cast off, there is little left to stop Big Ag companies within India from swallowing market share.

The awe-inspiring demonstration has becoming the defining story of India’s current era

The Indian government’s shift toward deregulation and privatization since the 1990s has hit farmers hardest, leaving them without the top-down protections that allowed them to not only manage and preserve their farms but also make sure their goods could actually be sold in a manner that provided subsistence and profit. As a result, more laws tailored to free markets were never going to exactly make land workers happy. “We will lose our lands, we will lose our income, if you let big business decide prices and buy crops. We don’t trust big business. Free markets work in countries with less corruption and more regulation. It can’t work for us here,” one farmer told the BBC last week. And with the country now entering a steep recession for the first time in decades and providing no welfare in turn, enough was enough.

Protests had started forming as far back as August, when awareness of the legislation was becoming more widespread but the bills themselves had not been passed yet. They ramped up soon after passage, with farm unions and other trade unions banding together—primarily in the agriculture-heavy states of Punjab and Haryana but also steadily growing elsewhere—to call for Bharat bandh (a Hindi term calling for a general strike that quite literally means “shut down India”). An actual shutdown did hit the railway, halting trains to and from Punjab through October before the campaign relented following concerns about needed supplies. The farmers and unions then decided to take it straight to the capital.

On Nov. 25, when the marchers reached Delhi, they were met right at the city limits by police, who used tear gas and water cannons against the protesters, and obstructed and damaged the roads outside the city to prevent them from entering. Photos and videos soon went viral on social media of the brutal policing tactics and crackdowns, eliciting worldwide sympathy for the rallygoers. It didn’t pass worldwide notice that some of these farmers kept on, even feeding some of the very officers who beat them.

Modi, in his attempt to quietly ease things for agribusiness corporations in the middle of his oppressive pandemic regime, inadvertently sparked the single largest proletariat uprising in world history. And these farmers are pressuring the Modi administration in a way past protesters simply could not. Last week, government officials started meeting with farm union leaders, and they also granted the marchers a designated area of Delhi within which to carry on the protest (although this mandated location is far from the Parliament House). However, many protesters wished to remain at the city border, having brought ample equipment to set up camps along the boundaries wherein the demonstrators can prepare food and organize.

REUTERS/DANISH SIDDIQUI

The farmers are demanding nothing less than a full retraction of the laws and say they are willing to remain at the capital’s outskirts until this is done. They also are asking Parliament for other special demands and regulations to keep small farms competitive in the marketplace, according to India Today. The newsmagazine also mentions that “the central government has agreed to work on most of the demands and make them part of the rules—which will need Parliament’s approval—except that of making purchases on [minimum support price] rates mandatory.” Without this last measure, talks with the government have continually stalled and restarted, reaching a deadlock. And on Monday, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar made a show of meeting with a small group of farmers who were mostly BJP supporters in favor of the new law, ignoring the masses outside who were very staunchly opposed to it.

The BJP is now starting to take more drastic, desperate crackdown measures. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that leaders of opposition parties in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh who have supported the farmers’ protest, including Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, had been barricaded in their homes by police, reportedly under the government’s direction. (Police soon relented in Kejriwal’s case after further protests.)

The awe-inspiring demonstration has become the defining story of India’s current era. News sites based in the country, like the Quint and the Economic Times, have entire sections dedicated for live updates on the protests. WWE wrestlers of Indian origin have expressed support for the farmers on Instagram. Even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau weighed in, in a statement of support for the protesters and concern about the force being used that met with blowback from the Indian government, which personally told Canadian diplomats in India not to have their country interfere.

Until very recently, the worldwide rally against U.S. President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 had been known as the largest in world history, amassing 10 million to 15 million people in more than 600 cities across the globe. This summer’s anti–police brutality protests within the U.S.—which also spread internationally—featured the participation of up to 26 million people in the country alone. So even if the 250 million figure is difficult to pin down with certainty, the Indian farmers’ protests still clearly dwarf these numbers by several degrees. That is, of course, no guarantee of success. After all, this is the same government that crushed dissidents in Kashmir and demonstrators against the Citizenship Amendment Act with relative ease. But that doesn’t mean the farmers shouldn’t keep fighting.

India: Why are suicides among farmers on the increase?

Financial burdens caused by climate change and government polices have led to a rise in the number of suicides among agricultural workers. Maharashtra state has suffered more than most.


Some experts have criticized the Narendra Modi government and its farming policies

In India, over 600 farmers in the region of Marathwada, Maharashtra state, have died from suicide this year, according to official figures, with a majority of deaths blamed on rains that damaged thousands of hectares of agricultural land.

Some agricultural experts believe the death toll could be even higher.

The figure is almost certain to eventually exceed last year's official figure of 805 suicides across Marathwada's eight districts, despite two consecutive state governments waiving farm loans in 2021.

Some 65% of the population living in this region are solely dependent on agriculture and similar activities for their livelihood and vocational needs. With climate change having drastic effects on crop production, many are beginning to suffer.

"When it comes to agriculture, the sector is tethered to poverty and distress," Joginder Singh, a prominent farm union leader, told DW. "The deaths are a reflection of the extremely fragile nature of farming communities and a multiple set of crises affects them."

This year, however, extreme rainfall events in Maharashtra damaged crops across 800,000 hectares, affecting farmers in 24 districts, mostly in the regions of Marathwada and Vidarbha.

Paddy, corn, soyabean, cotton, pigeon peas and banana crops and other vegetables have been heavily damaged, according to the state agriculture department, and half the damage has been reported in the state of Marathwada alone.
Suicides up almost 30% since 2019

The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in India, published earlier this week, said 5,563 agricultural laborers committed suicide last year and the number of people killing themselves in the industry increased by 9% from 2020, and up 29% from 2019.

Most suicides were reported in Maharashtra, with 1,424 cases, followed by Karnataka with 999, and Andhra Pradesh with 584.

"It is unfathomable that farmers' suicides are increasing every year, especially in the cotton growing belts," Indra Shekhar Singh, independent agriculture policy analyst told DW. "Crop failures, rising inputs costs and low market prices often trap the farmers in a cycle of debt. Farmers haven't fully recovered from the lockdowns yet too."

Experts point out that, through direct benefit transfers (DBT), the government can help farmers to diversify and move away from water-guzzling crops such as BT cotton and sugarcane to better newer climate-suited crops such as millets, legumes, or oilseeds.

"If DBTs are successfully implemented the government may score points with the farmers and also help mitigate climate change and save the precious water in this dry region," added Singh.

Problems are compounded by a lack of support from banks, especially in the face of inclement weather and market fluctuations.

"Farmers are hence prompted to turn to local moneylenders who charge them a much higher rate of interest," Singh said.

Agriculture: India's economic backbone

India is an agrarian country where over 50% of the population is reliant on agriculture to make a living. Apart from the rising farmers' suicides in vast swaths of the country, millions of mostly small-scale farmers have been squeezed by falling prices for their crops and the rising transportation and storage costs.

Outbreaks of rural discontent pose a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who promised to double farm incomes in five years when he came to power in 2014.

Many believe the suicides expose the precarious state in which the country's struggling farmers and impoverished agricultural laborers currently find themselves.

Last year, the Modi government was forced to repeal contentious agriculture laws that were proposed to modernize the farm sector after a nationwide agitation by farmers.

"Farmers withstand instability and an absence of security especially in Maharashtra," Darshan Pal Singh, leader of the Krantikari Kisan Union, told DW. "Their crop holdings are smaller than the farmers in Punjab. Debt cycles and erratic weather patterns like this year only add to their woes."

"The magnitude of the problem is so big that no government has ever tried to understand the increasing burden on the farmers due to inflated prices of agricultural inputs," he added.

Farmer groups point out that the government decides the market rates and argue that it is failing to meet the Minimum Support Price (MSP) – the price at which the government is supposed to buy that crop back from farmers if the market price falls below it.

Ketki Singh, vice president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union's women's wing, maintains that many sales do not even cover the production costs, leaving farmers facing massive losses.

RECORD TEMPERATURES HIT INDIA'S FARMERS
Air conditioners and blocks of ice
India is currently experiencing an exceptional heat wave. Rajgarh, a city of 1.5 million people in central India topped out at 46.5 degrees C (116 degrees F) while thermometers in nine other cities also climbed above the 45 degree mark. No wonder that anything to fight the heat is an easy sell on the streets of New Delhi.
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Climate change heaps misery on farmers

"Climate change has acted as the last nail in the coffin by resulting in furthering of the uncertainties associated with the already uncertain monsoon system and hence agricultural production," Ketki told DW.

"Can you imagine that nearly 30 people in the farming sector die by suicide daily?" she said.

According to government figures, two-thirds of India's population of 1.3 billion depends on farming for their livelihood, but agriculture makes up just around 17% of the nation's total economic output, amounting to around $2.3 trillion (€2.3 trillion).

#INTERNATIONALISM
‘If we don’t come back, remember we fought:’ India’s farmers remain resolute after failed talks

B.C. farmers have been watching the protests in India with heartbreak and concern over the fate of their family and friends on the front lines.

By Neetu Garcha Global News
Posted December 9, 2020 

Photographer gives deeper understanding of farmer' protests in India

With longstanding links to land and cultivation, B.C. farmers have been watching the protests in India with heartbreak and concern over the fate of their family and friends on the front lines.

“They’re sleeping on the streets right now,” Kelowna farmer Jadvinder Singh Nijjer said, adding he’s in regular contact with his niece who lives near Dehli.
“You never know what happens next but she’s doing hard work right now […] the situation is sad,” he said.

READ MORE: Here’s why farmers in India are protesting and why Canadians are concerned

His niece, Navneet Chahal, is a lawyer by profession and a photographer by passion.

She’s been joining the farmers daily documenting how thousands remain camped on the borders of the nation’s capital, after travelling nearly 370 kilometres in less than two days to get there two weeks ago.

Artist Jazzy B on why he and other British Columbians support farmers protests in India

Most of the protesters she spoke to are between 60 and 80 years of age; all hard-working farmers who depend on this work for their livelihood, she said.

“The resolve with which they’ve come, to look at their dedication, their commitment, their stand, it’s extremely overwhelming, super emotional,” Chahal told Global News.

READ MORE: Hundreds of vehicles join B.C. car rally in solidarity with Punjabi farmers

“I don’t think a day goes by that you don’t come back crying when you’re there it’s that overwhelming.”

Seva, which means selfless service, is a key pillar of Punjabi culture, Chahal said, and the farmers she spoke with are staying true to that standard, even offering food to the police officers, who they say hurt them.

1:51 Surrey to Vancouver car rally held in solidarity with Punjabi farmers – Dec 2, 2020

“They feed the police hoping that someday they start thinking like we do. They say even if you do your duties, we don’t hold things against you, so it is our duty to offer it to you because we offer it to everybody,” she said.

“It’s true to what the Punjabi spirit is.”

READ MORE: ‘Unacceptable’: India warns Trudeau his remarks on farmers’ protests may hurt bilateral ties

India has one of the highest rates of farmer suicides in the world, often driven by debt. The decades-long problem has hit a boiling point.

The Indian government’s recently-passed agriculture laws are widely perceived by protesting farmers as unjust, eliminating what many consider their minimum wage.

But the Indian government has argued the laws will improve farmers’ incomes, giving them a wider market to sell to.

The use of brute force by police, who have deployed tear gas, barbed-wire barricades and batons on peaceful protesters, has drawn international condemnation, including from Canada’s Prime Minister.

1:15 Sights and sounds of downtown Vancouver rally to support Indian farmers – Dec 2, 2020

“There’s no reason why they should be treated this way,” Chahal said. “It’s sad. I’m ashamed of my country.”

With another round of talks with the government having failed to bring the standoff to an end on Wednesday, the farmers are threatening to intensify their protest with more national disruptions.


READ MORE: Large crowds turn out for 2nd B.C. convoy supporting Indian farmers

“Some of them have literally made the statement, ‘We’ve written to our families saying if we don’t come back, remember we fought,'” Chahal said.

Farmers, who came prepared to camp outside in protest for several months, are vowing to hold their ground until the laws are revoked, no matter the price.

© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

India's farmers, government in uneasy standoff after tumultuous Delhi protest

© Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images Farmers protest against the Indian central government's recent agricultural reforms at the Red Fort in New Delhi on Jan. 26. Clashes with police that day left at least one person dead and hundreds injured.

CBC

In the wake of clashes between demonstrators and police in Delhi on Jan. 26, India's Republic Day, the government has been pushing back against the tens of thousands of farmers protesting the nation's new agricultural laws.

The government shut down the internet in parts of Delhi and surrounding areas this week in a move to hamper the protests and their organizers.

"People are not able to communicate with each other, they can't call home, they don't know what is happening on a political level with regards to the movement," said Nidhi Suresh, a Delhi-based journalist who has been covering the protests for the past two-and-a-half months.

India's Ministry of Home Affairs said the crackdown was "in the interest of maintaining public safety and averting public emergency." Internet service was reportedly back in some areas Friday afternoon, but whether it will be cut again is unclear.

Security forces have also put up barricades to keep people from easily accessing the protest camps, some of which now span several kilometres.

India's Republic Day unrest marked a change in the tone of the ongoing protest, as huge crowds converged on the nation's capital. A group stormed the barricades at the historic Red Fort, resulting in violent clashes with police. At least one person died, and hundreds of police and protestors were reported injured.

Several journalists have also been charged with sedition over their coverage of the events.

The confrontation has compromised the movement's commitment to peaceful protest. Since then the farmers, many of whom are Sikhs from nearby Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have condemned the violence and have returned to camps located on major roadways bordering the nation's capital — Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur.

"[We] were disappointed by the violence on Republic Day. But we are still united. It's a bigger movement than just the farmers' leaders and the politicians," said a law student and farmer from Haryana, Bhupender Chaudhary.

"It's now a protest for all of the people."

Along with the three large border protests, sympathy demonstrations have also sprung up in recent months. The largest, on Nov. 26, saw some 250 million people participate in a general strike all over the country.

"I have marvelled at how brilliantly people from such humble backgrounds have been negotiating with the government," said Gurpreet Wasi, a volunteer with Khalsa Aid based in Delhi. "Despite having thousands of differences on the ground, they have really projected a unified front."

© Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images Farmers take part in a tractor rally 

in New Delhi on Jan. 26.

Agricultural reforms

The farmers are protesting new laws brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in September. They say the bill will wipe out small farmers and give corporations far too much control of India's agricultural industry.

"For marginal, small farmers in places like Haryana, it's hard to sustain a living," said Chaudhary. "Their kids will starve if they get pushed out of the market."

Many farmers fear the government will eliminate the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which regulates the price of their crops. Modi has responded to this, saying the MSP will remain in place:

On Wednesday, Modi reiterated that his government has taken several steps to make India's farmers more "self-reliant" in the past six years.

So far, the Indian government has held several rounds of talks with leaders of the 40 farmers' unions fronting the movement. The leaders are demanding a complete repeal of the laws, but Delhi has only agreed to delay any reforms for 18 months.

Chaudhary, whose village grows chickpeas, wheat and mustard, has seen the challenges his community faces first hand. He was among the first to travel to nearby villages to explain the reforms and mobilize support. It started small.

"Sometimes we had only 10 people with us," he said.

© Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images 

Farmers work in a field on the outskirts of Amritsar on Feb. 1. 

The agricultural sector employs 70 per cent of India's working population.

India's massive agricultural sector, which employs 70 per cent of the working population, has been in crisis for years due to a number of factors including punishing droughts that have left already-indebted farmers with poor crop yields. Many have taken their own lives — the National Crime Records Bureau says that more than 10,000 farmers and farm labourers died by suicide in 2019 alone.

"For the last 10 to 12 years, there's been such a spate of farmer suicides," said Suresh.

The journalist points out that fighting the new laws is only part of their struggle.

"It's now a protest of dignity, it's a protest of who gets heard and who should be getting heard and what the due process is," she said. "Shouldn't affected parties and communities be consulted at all before such a bill is brought in?"

"It's the responsibility of the state to try and come up and hear their own people, and have a conversation that they can trust," added Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asian Director of Human Rights Watch. "But there is a huge trust deficit … which is why the conversations are not not coming to a satisfactory conclusion."

Security barricades

© Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters A security officer walks past metal spikes installed in the ground by the Delhi police as a security measure at Tikri Border, one of the areas near Delhi where farmers are protesting, in this Feb. 4 photo.

Chaudhary and his family have been at the Tikri border since November, where a large police presence surrounds the area. Police have now embedded nails in the ground to puncture the tires of vehicles that try to pass through.

"At first, there was fear and anxiety when we heard the news that the government was bringing in security forces," he said. "But they can't do anything now, there are too many of us."

At Singhu, heavy barricades and road closures make it impossible for anyone to access the camps. The police have dug up crater-like trenches along the route to make travel difficult.

"You have to walk almost two kilometres to get close, and once you're there they won't let you in and ask you to take a detour," Suresh said, adding that many journalists are afraid of getting arrested and detained when they get to the sites.

"It's a strategy to keep people out."

However, the security forces have also been reluctant to resort to violence.

"The one thing that the government appears to have tried very hard to do is ensure that security forces act with restraint," Ganguly said. "But the fact that it needs this sort of barricading of borders seems a little unfortunate, in terms of what the government was trying to achieve."

© Arun Kumar/AFP via Getty Images 

Protesting farmers take a bath along a blocked highway on Jan. 29

 at the Delhi-Haryana state border in Singhu.

Inside the barricades, farmers and their families have set up shelters, community kitchens (a Sikh practice called langar), and even services like laundry, but the nights are cold, and running water and electricity are not always available.

With the road closures, local volunteers are unable to keep bringing in supplies like warm clothes and blankets from Delhi.

Besides the risk associated with COVID-19, people on the ground say sanitary conditions at the crowded camps are getting worse.

"Disease is something they are getting concerned about now," Suresh said, "because there's no proper sanitation and there's stagnation of water."

At least 70 farmers have died at the sites, according to the farmers unions, but there are no official government numbers and Suresh says some believe the toll is likely higher.

"Many of the farmers are old, some of them are struggling in the cold, some of them have had heart attacks," Chaudhary said.

The deaths have weighed on him.

"You naturally start to feel defeated, but we are carrying on."

Some villages, including Chaudhary's, have set up a system — if 10 people need to return home, then 10 people replace them at the border, allowing farmers to take care of their homes and tend to their crops.

Protestors are estimated to have brought in six months worth of rations, and they are mobilizing more support through grand village council meetings (panchayats) happening all around Delhi.

"As an eyewitness being there for the last two and a half months, I can say with full clarity that I don't see any dwindling of crowds," said Suresh.

© Adnan Abidi/Reuters Farmers listen to a speaker at Singhu 

border near New Delhi on Jan. 30.

Online maneuvering

Protest activities and government responses are also playing out online.

Internet blackouts like the one this week have become a pattern in India as a way for the government to address dissent. Statista reported that in 2018, India was by far the country that implemented the most internet shutdowns.

"It has become the go-to strategy when they want to contain any kind of public protest, because they believe a lot of communication and organizing occurs over the internet," Human Rights Watch's Ganguly said.

Meanwhile, a statement from India's Ministry of External Affairs also suggests the government is concerned that interest groups have "tried to mobilise international support against India." The government maintains that the farmer protests are an internal matter, after recent tweets of support for the protests from celebrities including Rihanna and Greta Thunberg.

© Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images Activists with the United Hindu Front (UHF) hold placards and pictures of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Barbadian singer Rihanna during a demonstration in New Delhi on Feb. 4, after the celebrities made comments on social media about ongoing mass farmers' protests in India.

And public support for the farmers' position isn't unanimous.

This week, along with attempts to block hundreds of protest-related accounts on social media that have become the driving force of the movement, there was a concerted pro-government hashtag campaign.

When NDP leader Jagmeet Singh thanked Rihanna for "empowering the voices of the oppressed" on Instagram, for example, a number of Indian officials and celebrities fired back using the hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda.

Cricket star Sachin Tendulkar wrote, "India's sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants."

Ultimately, online discourse isn't what Ganguly is concerned about.

"That's still in the peaceful conversation space," Ganguly said. "Our concern is almost always what happens if there is violence. And what happens in terms of state response, whether they are punishing dissent in any way."

There are more demonstrations expected in the coming days. The farmers say they refuse to stop protesting until they are properly consulted on agricultural reforms that they fear will have a huge impact on their lives.

"Our elders told us to stand our ground and said, look, we're not turning around and we're not going to be afraid," said Chaudhary. "So we don't plan on moving now. Our tractors and our trolleys are going to stay put."

Why Are Twitter Users Trying To “Expose” Greta Thunberg?

Since she first rose to prominence, 18-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg has faced (and expertly handled) opposition and harassment from many corners of the internet, including Twitter’s biggest cyberbully and least favorite U.S. president. But in a bizarre turn, figures in India are trying to “expose” Thunberg on Twitter, arguing that she that she and Rihanna (yes, Rihanna) are misrepresenting the ongoing farmer protests throughout the country and pushing a global conspiracy theory.

© Provided by Refinery29 HAMBURG, GERMANY – MARCH 01: Teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg demonstrates with high school students against global warming at a Fridays for Future demonstration on March 01, 2019 in Hamburg, Germany. Fridays for Future is an international movement of students who, instead of attending their classes, take part in demonstrations demanding for action against climate change. The series of demonstrations began when Thunberg staged such a protest outside the Swedish parliament building. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

This week, Thunberg and Rihanna — along with a few other celebrities, including Mia Khalifa — tweeted out links to articles about the current protests in India, which have been ongoing since November. The protests, which are pushing back against recent laws that will strip farm workers of guaranteed wages, have been a point of contention within the country. In an effort to raise awareness, Thunberg shared a Google doc with information about how to help India’s farmers on social media. But she deleted that tweet after supporters of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, began tweeting #GretaThunbergExposed and questioning the purpose of the document.

“@GretaThunberg has exposed the global conspiracy that she is a part of,” wrote the Republic Media Network, a right-wing news channel in India. “If you read the contents of the Google doc that she shared, it’s clear that there’s an orchestrated, scripted, and well-funded plan to target India, Indian companies, and Indian democracy.”

It should be noted that Republic TV has been accused of spreading false news and bias in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. And now, they are falsely implying that Thunberg is at the center of some kind of international plan to attack Indian democracy. Like previous conspiracy theories about Thunberg, this one is wrong.

The protests date back to a series of laws implemented last September. The main takeaway is that, under the new legislation, workers won’t be given guaranteed wages and will instead be allowed to sell their crops to anyone, at any price. The government insists that this will help India’s economy, but farmers argue that the laws will only lower the costs of their goods and leave agriculture workers across the country vulnerable to exploitation.

To fully grasp the magnitude of the problem, it’s important to recognize how many people are impacted by these changes. Not only does the industry make up almost 15% of India’s economy, but 58% of Indians cite agriculture as their family’s primary source of livelihood. The Indian government released a response to Thunberg’s call to action, writing that the protestors represent “a very small section of farmers in parts of India” who simply have “reservations” about the new laws.

“The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible,” the external affairs ministry wrote on Wednesday.

However, Thunberg isn’t the one presenting inaccurate, irresponsible information. Hundreds of thousands of farmers have participated in the protests; many have camped out around Delhi for months. The government has escalated its attempts to stop the movement by obstructing protestors’ access to food and water and, more recently, shutting down internet access. There have also been concerns about freedom of the press since multiple journalists were detained for purportedly “inciting” the farmers at the border between Delhi and Haryana.

The internet shutdown has especially impacted people in India and drawn national attention to the protests. “I work tirelessly in the day, helping with the arrangements at the protest site,” 25-year-old Harneet Singh told The Guardian. “Normally, a video call in the evening with the family would relieve my stress but the internet shutdown is choking us.”

Critics believe that the aim of the shutdown was to slash communication between farmers from different protest sites, and communication between protestors and the rest of the world. “The government does not want the real facts to reach protesting farmers, nor their peaceful conduct to reach the world,” Darshan Pal said in a statement, according to CNN. Pal is a leader from Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a united front of over 40 farmers’ unions that banded together to protest the new legislation. He added that the government is afraid of different unions contacting each other and teaming up. “Typically, these village groups work together against each other, but this time they have all united for the collective fight.”

The protests came to a head on January 26, also known as India Republic Day. Farmers entered the capital of Delhi and clashed with the police, who reacted with tear gas and batons. The conflict left many protestors and members of law enforcement injured, and Delhi police called it an “anti-national act.”

The reality is, Thunberg hasn’t been exposed as anything other than a staunch activist, and her role in the protests isn’t dissimilar from the role she has played countless times before. She’s using her platform to raise awareness and attract attention to an important movement. And she probably isn’t going to let a hashtag stop her.

1 tweet from Rihanna on farmer protests gets India incensed

NEW DELHI — It took just one tweet from Rihanna to anger the Indian government and supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. The pop star linked a news article in a tweet drawing attention to the massive farmer protests that have gripped India for more than two months.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Now, senior government ministers, Indian celebrities and even the foreign ministry are urging people to come together and denounce outsiders who try to break the country.

“It is unfortunate to see vested interest groups trying to enforce their agenda on these protests, and derail them,” India's foreign ministry said Wednesday in a rare statement criticizing “foreign individuals” posting on social media. It did not name Rihanna and others who followed suit.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been hunkering down at the Indian capital’s fringes to protest new agricultural laws they say will leave them poorer and at the mercy of corporations. The protests are posing a major challenge to Modi who has billed the laws as necessary to modernize Indian farming.

Their largely peaceful protests turned violent on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day, when a section of the tens of thousands of farmers riding tractors veered from the protest route earlier decided with police and stormed the 17th century Red Fort in a dramatic escalation. Hundreds of police officers were injured and a protester died. Scores of farmers were also injured but officials have not given their numbers.

Farmer leaders condemned the violence but said they would not call off the protest.

Since then, authorities have heavily increased security at protest sites outside New Delhi’s border, adding iron spikes and steel barricades to stop demonstrating farmers from entering the capital. The government had also restricted access to mobile internet at protest sites up until Tuesday evening.

The latest controversy started Tuesday when Rihanna tweeted to her more than 101 million followers: “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” She linked to a CNN news report about India blocking internet services at the protest sites, a favoured tactic of the Modi government to thwart protests.

The Associated Press and multiple other international news agencies have been covering the farmer protests for months.

Soon after Rihanna's tweet, international condemnation from human rights groups and outrage from Indian supporters of Modi’s party followed. And the foreign ministry accused “foreign individuals” and celebrities of “sensationalism,” without names.

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and the niece of U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, Meena Harris, were among those who tweeted their support, triggering a social media storm back in India.

Bollywood entertainers and sports stars, many of whom have long been silent on the farmer protests and often toe the government's line, tweeted in one voice.

They used hashtags #IndiaAgainstPropaganda and #IndiaTogether, echoing the government’s stand on the agriculture laws, and asked people outside India not to meddle with their country’s affairs.

“No one is talking about it because they are not farmers, they are terrorists who are trying to divide India,” actress Kangana Ranaut, a supporter of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, tweeted.

Rihanna’s and Thunberg's tweets also prompted responses from almost every senior leader of BJP, including Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Home Minister Amit Shah, who said that “no propaganda can deter India’s unity.”

The main opposition Congress party leader Shashi Tharoor said the damage done to India’s global image by the government’s “undemocratic behaviour” could not be restored by making celebrities tweet.

Tharoor in a tweet said Indian government getting “Indian celebrities to react to Western ones is embarrassing."

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram took a swipe at the foreign ministry and called its statement “puerile reaction.”

“When will you realize that people concerned with issues of human rights and livelihoods do not recognize national boundaries?,” Chidambaram tweeted.

Negotiations between representatives of the government and farmers to end the protests have failed. The government has proposed suspending the laws for 18 months but is not meeting the farmers' demands for a full repeal.

Sheikh Saaliq, The Associated Press

Sikh diaspora drums up global support for farmers' protest in India


By Mayank Bhardwaj, Manoj Kumar


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Thousands of Indian farmers protesting against deregulation of agriculture markets are drawing strength from Sikhs around the world who are urging foreign governments to intercede with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


FILE PHOTO: Farmers take part in a protest against farm bills passed by India's parliament on the outskirts of Delhi, India, December 17, 2020. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

Farmers, mostly from the Sikh-dominated state of Punjab, have been camped on the borders of New Delhi since last month, demanding Modi roll back the reforms intended to bring investment in the antiquated farm sector but which the farmers say will leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

Sikhs living overseas, most of whom have families at home tied to the farms, have picked up the thread in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, demonstrating outside Indian embassies to draw attention.

On Thursday, 250 to 300 Sikhs and other overseas Indians took part in a rally in a Melbourne district to express their support for India’s farmers, said Rajbir Singh, who runs a small transport business in Melbourne.

On Saturday, people of Indian origin plan to carry out similar protests near the state parliament of Victoria in Melbourne, said Siftnoor Singh, a data scientist.

“The new laws will bring economic devastation to our motherland, and we can’t simply close our eyes and pretend that everything is alright back home,” he told Reuters by phone.

The farmers’ fear is that by allowing companies such as Walmart and India’s Reliance Industries Ltd’s retail arm to buy directly from farmers, the government intends to weaken the traditional markets where their rice and wheat are guaranteed a minimum price.

Sikhs and other Indian Punjabis overseas are estimated at 12 million. They form a tightly knit group and are vociferous in articulating the concerns of the community back home.

Since the farmers’ protest started more than two weeks ago in India, members of the diaspora have participated in protest marches - mostly consisting of 400 to 600 people - in nearly 50 different cities of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, protesters and their families said.

The government has declined comment on the protests overseas. But underlining India’s sensitivity about what it sees as foreign interference in its internal affairs, New Delhi summoned Canada’s ambassador this month to convey displeasure after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the farmers had a right to protest.

‘HAND THAT FEEDS YOU’

“I’ve been approached by many concerned people of Indian origin who are based in Victoria to speak about the issue,” Samantha Ratnam, parliamentary leader of Australia’s Victorian Greens party, recently told the state legislative council.

Relatives and supporters of the farmers gathered this month even in the small town of Canton, Michigan, in the United States, carrying placards saying “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” and “I stand with farmers”. Other protesters staged a demonstration outside the Indian embassy in Washington.

In Canada, home to a Sikh community that is politically influential, residents of Indian origin have vowed to step up their support for India’s protesting farmers.

“We are taking part in regular protests to bring it to the notice of local authorities who can help us amplify our voices,” said Amanpreet Singh Grewal, a resident of Brampton, Ontario, Canada. “We are committed to support our farmers in India.”

Many Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) own farmlands in Punjab and fear the sweeping changes that the government plans will hurt them economically.

“Punjabi NRIs are worried that if these laws are implemented, and result in fall in crop procurement prices, it would lead to substantial fall in the value of their farm lands and yearly income from land contracts,” said Avtar Singh Gill, 64, who is now settled in Punjab after four decades in the UK.

Mewa Singh, the chief of the NRI council in the Ropar district of Punjab, said organisations such as his that represent overseas Indians were helping farmers mobilise people in villages, arranging transport for them, and collecting milk and rations for supplying to the protesters sleeping out in the open near Delhi.

Singh said his son, the manager of a basketball team in Houston, Texas, was leading protests there.





“We can’t allow Prime Minister Modi to take away what we have gained over the years through hard work and political struggle,” Mewa Singh said.

In Britain, Sikh groups wield influence and have been making the case for British leaders to raise the issue with their Indian counterparts even if the Modi government baulks at such involvement.

Jas Singh, an adviser at the Sikh Foundation, said the community had written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer to lobby their case.

“Worried by the use of disproportionate force against many elderly protesters, we’ve also reached out to the United Nations to ask India to protect farmers’ right to peaceful protests,” Jas Singh said.


Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Manoj Kumar; editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Raju Gopalakrishnan

INDIA
Farmers in Over 400 Districts Observe 'Quit WTO Day' Against Inclusion of Agri Sector in WTO Pact


Newsclick Report | 27 Feb 2024

The SKM called for 'Quit WTO Day' on Monday, February 26, in the backdrop of the 13th WTO Ministerial in Abu Dhabi.

Farmers, under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), protested on the streets of Haryana and Punjab against the inclusion of the agriculture sector in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement.

The SKM had called for 'Quit WTO Day' on Monday, February 26, demanding the removal of the agriculture sector from the WTO agreement. Farmers observed the protest by parking their tractors on highways in Haryana and Punjab.

The images of tractor rallies with farmers burning the effigies of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and State Home Minister Anil Vij started pouring in from the morning. The farmers tied the flags of their organisations on their vehicle bonnets and raised slogans like ‘Give MSP now, Boycott WTO, Inquilab Zindabad.’

Apart from SKM, SKM (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) also observed the protests by burning effigies of WTO at Khanauri and Shambhu borders. These organisations are leading the 'Dilli Chalo' march.

The 'Quit WTO Day' protest came "against the backdrop of the 13th Ministerial Conference of WTO which started on Monday in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and will continue till February 29."

"We demand that agriculture should be taken out of the WTO agreement. It is high time the government understands the concerns of farmers," said Sukhmandar Singh, president of BKU (Rajewal).

Darshan Pal, member of the national coordination committee of SKM, said, "Farmers have realised the threats to the agriculture sector due to the agreements of India with WTO. It is high time the consumers also understand them."

Balbir Thakan, president, All India Kisan Sabha Bhiwani, said anger of farmers could be gauged from the fact that more than 2600 farmers took 1,400 tractors on 10 major state and national highways in the district alone.

Talking to NewsClick over the phone, he said, “Farmers are also understanding that if mustard is being dumped in the Indian market, our prices will crash. We as organisation leaders make common farmers aware about these developments. However, farmers are very much enraged about treatment meted out to common farmers at the borders. We are also gearing up for our huge national meeting of farmers in Ramlila Maidan on March 14.”

According to an Indian Express report, farmers parked their tractors at several locations in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, including the Jalandhar-Jammu National Highway. The protesters in Punjab also called for legal guarantees on minimum support price (MSP), pensions for farmers, implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations and debt waivers.

Similar protests where farmers parked their tractors on national highways from 12 noon to 3 pm were observed in Haryana's Hisar and Ajnala, Jandiala Guru, Beas and Rayya regions of Punjab.

Meanwhile, there has been no movement in the deadlock between the 'Dilli Chalo' farmer unions and the Punjab government even five days after the death of a young farmer from Punjab.

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, coordinator of SKM (non-political), urged the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to speak to the farmers and register an FIR against the Haryana police officers who allegedly opened fire at the protest site.

"This dharna will continue till our demands are met. Even after the model code of conduct comes into force owing to the upcoming parliamentary elections, this protest will continue. The government may not take any action on the pretext of the election model code of conduct, but we have nothing to do with the elections," said Sarwan Singh Pandher, KMM Coordinator.

Farmers organisations have been maintaining that India’s food security and price support programmes are subjects of repeated disputes at WTO. The major agricultural exporting countries, has proposed a 50% cut in the global level of WTO members’ entitlements to support agriculture by the end of 2034.

In a press statement SKM said,”The issue of public stock-holding is most critical for India especially in view of the ongoing struggles of farmers and workers for the MSP to be fixed at C2+50% level and for a statutory guarantee of the MSP to all farmers. In fact in India, 90% of the farmers are out of the purview of the present system of MSP based on A2+Fl+50% and facing acute agrarian crisis and indebtedness.”

It added: “The resultant intensifying unemployment, poverty and rural to urban distress migration have created precarious situations in the countryside during the least ten years of Modi rule. The Government of India must firmly defend the rights of the country to protect its farmers and ensure national food security. No international institutions or agreements can be allowed to come in the way of these [guarantees].”

The SKM maintained that the Indian government was given a lease in 2014, as an exception for five years, allowing it not to implement conversion of PDS (public distribution system) into cash transfer. “India's food stocking program for PDS is exempted from challenge by WTO members under the temporary peace clause. That is likely to be upturned and if so, India needs to Quit WTO to prevent WTO regulations from interfering in its food security programs and agriculture production,” it said.

Meanwhile, the joint platform of central trade unions too extended its solidarity to the rally and said, “It is most deplorable that these forces violated federal structure and respect to sovereign rights of state governments and used these oppressive measures in the territory of Punjab, not only with water cannons and plastic pellets but metal pellets were also used. Use of drones on the food producer Annadata seeking for their genuine demands was most barbaric. Not only that, the forces went inside Punjab boundary and damaged more than 50 tractors and vehicles of farmers, they continued picking up people at random.”

“We demand judicial enquiry to investigate the killing of the young farmer, to fix responsibility and registration of a case under Sec. 302 of IPC for stringent punishment to the culprit and compensate the farmers for the huge damage done to their tractors and vehicles. The CTUs extend their unequivocal solidarity to the programme called by the SKM for a Mahapanchayat on March 14 at Ramlila ground, Delhi on their demands,” the statement read.

INDIA FARMERS REVOLT

Cancellation of UK PM Boris Johnson's visit our victory, Modi government's 'defeat': Farmer unions

Farmer unions protesting against the three new agri laws claimed the cancellation of UK PM Boris Johnson's visit to India later this month was a political win.

Published: 07th January 2021 


PM Narendra Modi (Photo | PTI)
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Farmer unions protesting against the three new agri laws Wednesday claimed the cancellation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit to India later this month was a "political win" for them and a "diplomatic defeat" for the government, and asserted their agitation has been receiving global support.

Johnson was scheduled to attend the Republic Day celebrations in India as Chief Guest, but the visit had to be cancelled due to the growing health crisis in the UK after a new variant of coronavirus emerged there.

"The cancellation of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's India visit is a political win for farmers and a diplomatic defeat for the Modi government...political and social organisations across the world have been supporting the agitation," Sankyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of the protesting farmer unions, said in a statement in Hindi.

The statement said the farmers have already announced a tractor protest march on January 26 and a "rehearsal" for it on January 7.

ALSO READ: Agri laws: Wisconsin Speaker supports farmers' protests; writes to Indian, US envoys

"The cancellation of the UK prime minister's visit because of all these efforts is surely a big victory for farmers," the statement said.

According to a release issued by the Prime Minister's office here on Tuesday, PM Narendra Modi had a telephonic conversation with Johnson.

"Prime Minister Johnson reiterated his thanks for India's invitation for him as the Chief Guest of the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations, but regretted his inability to attend in view of the changed COVID-19 context prevailing in the UK. He reiterated his keenness to visit India in the near future," it had stated.

The protesting farm unions have claimed that around 80 farmers have died --they have called them "martyrs" -- since their agitation began.

ALSO READ: SC to hear pleas against new agri laws, all issues related to farmers protest on January 11

"Farmers' movement is now becoming people's movement," the Morcha statement said.

Meanwhile, All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, one of the 40 protesting unions, alleged in statement that the Central government is "non-serious" on the demands of peasants.

"The Central government is non-serious about talks and solving farmers' problems. In the 7th round of talks, it finally stated clearly that it has understood that the demand is for repeal and that it will have to undertake 'further consultation'," AIKSCC claimed.

The seventh round of talks between the protesting unions and three Central ministers ended inconclusively on Monday as farmer groups stuck to their demand for the repeal of three laws, while the government listed out various benefits of the new Acts for the growth of the country's agriculture sector.

ALSO READ: Undeterred by cold weather, rains, protesting farmers warn to intensify stir further

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had said he remains hopeful of a solution in the next meeting on January 8, but asserted that efforts need to be made from both sides for a resolution to be reached (taali dono haathon se bajti hai).

While several opposition parties and people from other walks of life have come out in support of the farmers, some farmer groups have also met the agriculture minister over the last few weeks to extend their support to the three laws.

Last month, the government had sent a draft proposal to the protesting farmer unions, suggesting seven-eight amendments to the new laws and a written assurance on the MSP procurement system.

The government has ruled out a repeal of the three agri laws.

Over 2,500 farmers take out tractor march in Delhi against farm laws

Farmers started the tractor march around 11 am and moved towards Kundli, Manesar, Palwal Expressway amid heavy deployment of Delhi Police and Haryana Police personnel.

Farmers tractor march at KMP Rohtak crossing on ThFarmers tractor march at KMP Rohtak crossing on Thursday. (Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)

Published: 07th January 2021 
By PTI

NEW DELHO: Amid tight security, thousands of farmers on Thursday started their tractor-march from protest sites -- Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders -- against the three agriculture laws.

Bharati Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan said that farmers participated in the march with over 3,500 tractors and trolleys.

According to the protesting farm unions, this is just "rehearsal" for their proposed January 26 tractor parade that will be move into the national capital from different parts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Farmers started the tractor march around 11 am and moved towards Kundli, Manesar, Palwal Expressway amid heavy deployment of Delhi Police and Haryana Police personnel.

The tractor march, led by senior BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, moved towards Palwal.

"In the coming days, we will intensify our agitation against the three farm laws. Around 2,500 tractors from Haryana have participated in today's march. 

"We want to warn that if the government doesn't not accept our demands, farmers' protest will get intensified further," Abhimanyu Kohar, a senior member of Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, told PTI.

The tractor march started from four different points -- Singhu to Tikri Border, Tikri to Kundli, Ghazipur to Palwal and Rewasan to Palwal.

ALSO READ | Security increased along Delhi borders ahead of farmers' tractor rally 

Braving severe cold and sporadic rains, thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and some other parts of the country have been camping at several Delhi border points for over 40 days, demanding repeal of farm laws, a legal guarantee on minimum support price for their crops and other two issues.

The seventh round of talks between protesting unions and three central ministers ended inconclusively on Monday as farmer groups stuck to their demand for the repeal of three laws, while the government listed out various benefits of the new acts for the growth of the country's agriculture sector.