NEW DELHI – With the pomp and color of military parades, Republic Day celebrations in India are among the most attractive.
But on Tuesday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the start of the country’s constitution with another military parade, an unlikely force was preparing to overshadow the show.
Protesting farmers in India, who camped at the gates of New Delhi for two months demanding that Modi repeal laws that would reshape Indian agriculture, were preparing to march to the capital with thousands of tractors.
The show of strength, after the central government failed in its frantic efforts to prevent the tractors from marching, dramatically illustrated how the impasse with the farmers embarrassed Modi. Although he emerged as India’s most dominant figure after crushing his political opposition, farmers have been persistently defiant.
In September, Modi hastily passed three agricultural laws in Parliament that he hopes will inject private investment into a sector that has suffered from inefficiency and lack of money for decades. But farmers quickly rose up against them, saying that loosening government regulations left them at the mercy of corporate giants who would take over their businesses.
As their protests grew in size and anger, with tens of thousands of farmers camped out in the cold for two months and dozens of deaths between them, the government offered to change parts of the laws to include their demands. The country’s Supreme Court also intervened, ordering the government to suspend the laws until reaching a resolution with the farmers.
But farmers say they will not stop before a repeal and have started to increase pressure. In addition to the tractor march on Tuesday, they announced plans to carry out a walk to the Indian Parliament on February 1, when the country’s new budget will be presented.
Tensions were high until Tuesday, with some officials claiming that the protests were infiltrated by insurgent elements who would resort to violence if farmers could enter the city. A few days before the tractor march, the farmers’ leaders brought to the media a young man they claimed to have arrested on suspicion of a plot to shoot the leaders on Tuesday to stop the rally. No set of claims can be independently verified.
There was some confusion about the scope and size of the tractor’s gear before it started. Local media reports, citing documents from Delhi police, said the march would begin only after the Republic Day parade in the heart of New Delhi had culminated. The reports also state that the number of tractors and the time they can stay within the city has been limited.
But agricultural leaders at a news conference on Monday said there were no time limits and number of tractors, as long as they followed the routes set by Delhi police. Route maps suggested a compromise between the farmers and the police that could allow protesters to enter the city, but not approach sensitive institutions of power.
The leaders said some 150,000 tractors had gathered at the capital’s borders for the march, that some 3,000 volunteers would try to help the police maintain order and that 100 ambulances were on standby.
Farm leaders, both in statements to protesters and during the press conference, repeatedly called for peace while carrying out the tractor march.
“Remember, our goal is not to conquer Delhi, but to conquer the hearts of the people of this country,” they said in instructions posted online to protesters, who were instructed not to carry weapons – “not even kindling” – during the march and avoid provocative slogans and banners.
“The hallmark of this unrest is that it is peaceful,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, one of the movement’s main leaders. “My request to our farming brothers, to our young people, is that they maintain this peaceful movement. The government is spreading rumors, the agencies have started to deceive people. Be careful with that.
“If we remain at peace, we win. If we become violent, Modi will win. “
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.