MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (INDIA) – On Sunday, tens of thousands of farmers in India intensified their agitations against three controversial agricultural laws which aim to revamp food grain procurement and pricing rules by enabling private players to have direct access to the agrarian sector.
The capital, New Delhi, witnessed irate farmers staging demonstrations on its outskirts after they rejected the promises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the laws would double their income.
So far, six rounds of talks between farmer union leaders and the government have failed.
“Hundreds of farmers will launch a tractor trolley march to New Delhi to voice our grievances against the new laws,” said Kamal Preet Singh Pannu, a leader of Sanyukta Kisan Andolan (United Farmers’ Protest), one of 30 groups protesting against the laws.
“Government wants to discredit and crush our movement, but we will continue to protest peacefully,” Pannu said.
Authorities have stepped up security measures by deploying policemen and erecting barricades to prevent farmers from thronging the capital. Opposition parties and senior economists have thrown their weight behind the protesters.
“I’ve now studied India’s new farm bills & realise they are flawed and will be detrimental to farmers,” said Kaushik Basu, a former chief economic adviser to the federal government.
“Our agriculture regulation needs change, but the new laws will end up serving corporate interests more than farmers. Hats off to the sensibility & moral strength of India’s farmers,” Basu said.
During an event on Saturday in New Delhi, federal ministers appealed to leading industrialists and businesses to explain the benefits of the new laws to the farming community.