India blocked mobile internet services in several areas around Delhi on Saturday, when Protestant farmers started a one-day hunger strike after a week of clashes with authorities that left one dead and hundreds injured.
Furious about the new agricultural laws that, they say, benefit large private buyers at the expense of producers, tens of thousands of farmers camped at protest sites outside the capital for more than two months.
A planned parade of bulldozers on Republic Day last Tuesday turned violent when some protesters deviated from the agreed routes, broke down barricades and clashed with police, who used tear gas against them.
Sporadic clashes between protesters, police and groups shouting anti-farmer slogans have erupted on several occasions since then.
India’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday that internet services at three locations around Delhi, where protests are taking place, were suspended until 11 pm (17:30 GMT) on Sunday to “maintain public safety”.
Indian authorities often block Internet services when they believe there will be unrest, although the move is unusual in the capital.
At the main protest site near the village of Singhu, on the northern outskirts of the city, there was an intensified police presence on Saturday when hundreds of tractors arrived from Haryana, one of the two states at the center of the protests.
Agricultural leaders said Saturday’s hunger strike, which coincides with the anniversary of the death of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, would show Indians that the protesters were extremely peaceful.
“The farmers’ movement has been peaceful and will be peaceful,” said Darshan Pal, leader of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha group of agricultural unions that organizes the protests.
“The events of January 30 will be organized to disseminate the values of truth and non-violence.”
Agriculture employs about half of India’s 1.3 billion population, and the turmoil among some 150 million landowning farmers is one of the biggest challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government since he came to power in 2014.
Eleven rounds of negotiations between the agricultural unions and the government have failed to resolve the impasse. The government has offered to suspend the laws for 18 months, but farmers say they will not end their protests for anything less than a total repeal.