NEW DELHI (AP) – Indian farmers who participated in more than two months of protest against the new agricultural laws started a full-day hunger strike on Saturday, while seeking to reaffirm the peaceful nature of their movement after recent violent clashes with the police.
Farmers’ leaders said the hunger strike was scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of the death of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, who was famous for his non-violent resistance to colonial rule. However, the protesters said they were still furious with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.
“The way the government is spreading planned lies and violence is reprehensible,” said a statement from Samyukta Kisan Morcha, or United Farmers ‘Front, a coalition of farmers’ unions.
Tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside New Delhi since November, seeking to repeal laws passed in September that they say will favor agribusiness and corporations, devastate the earnings of many farmers and leave those with small plots behind.
Modi and his allies say the laws are necessary to modernize Indian agriculture. Several rounds of negotiations between the two sides have not been successful.
The protests were largely peaceful, but violence broke out on Tuesday, Republic Day of India, when tens of thousands of farmers riding on tractors and marching on foot toppled police barricades and invaded the 17th century Red Fort of New York. Delhi in a brief but shocking takeover.
The clashes left one protester dead and nearly 400 police officers injured. Authorities did not say how many farmers were injured, but many were seen to be bloodied after the police, with shock equipment, hit them with batons and fired tear gas.
Tensions have remained high ever since, with sporadic clashes between protesters, police and unidentified groups shouting anti-farmer slogans. On Friday, a group of about 200 people stormed a protest site, despite heavy security, threw stones at farmers and damaged their tents.
The group demanded that farmers clear the area and said they had “insulted” the national flag during the tractor parade on Republic Day. The farmers claimed that the majority of the vandals were composed of members of a Hindu nationalist group that has close ties to Modi’s party.
On Saturday, authorities blocked mobile internet services at three protest sites, a favorite tactic of the Modi government to prevent protests. India’s Interior Ministry said internet services would remain suspended until Sunday to “maintain public safety”.
Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said the government was “deluded if it thinks our movement will be weakened” by suspending the internet.
“The more they try to crush the farmers’ voices, the bigger the movement,” tweeted Tikait.
The protests represent the biggest challenge for Modi since he took office in 2014, partly because farmers are the most influential electoral bloc in the country and an important part of the economy. In a rare display of unity, 16 opposition parties boycotted a parliamentary speech by ceremonial President Ram Nath Kovind, who is from the Bharatiya Janata Party of Modi.
Both sides seemed to be increasingly entrenched.
Instead of trying to lower the temperature after Tuesday’s clashes, the government has filed lawsuits against journalists, activists and opposition politicians, accusing them of sedition and inciting violence.
Farmers, meanwhile, have seen their ranks grow to thousands of new protesters since a video of Tikait bursting into tears as he spoke to reporters was widely shared on social media on Thursday.
“Our movement gained strength after the Republic Day rally. We have decided that we are not going back, ”said Sukhdev Singh, another farmer leader who was participating in the hunger strike on Saturday. “If we’re going to die, we’re going to die here.”
___ Associated Press video journalist Shonal Ganguly contributed to this report.