At least one protester was killed and 80 policemen were injured after tens of thousands of farmers, many of them driving tractors, took to the streets of New Delhi on Tuesday to call for repeal of the new contentious agricultural laws.
After months of sustained but peaceful demonstrations on the outskirts of the city, farmers interrupted the city’s national Republic Day holiday, clashing with the police, destroying barricades and invading Fort Red, a 400-year-old landmark.
On Wednesday, a day after the chaos, the farmers returned to their camps on the outskirts of the city, promising to continue their protest and return to the city for a walking march to the Parliament of India on Monday.
Who are the protesters?
Many of the protesting farmers are members of the Sikh religious minority and come from the states of Punjab and Haryana. Farmers in other parts of the country demonstrated solidarity.
Since November, thousands of farmers have camped outside of New Delhi, the capital, keeping vigil in large tent cities and threatening to enter if agricultural laws were not repealed.
The protest revealed the terrible reality of inequality in much of the country.
More than 60% of the 1.3 billion Indians still depend mainly on agriculture for their livelihood, although the sector accounts for only 15% of the country’s economic production. Their dependence only increased after the coronavirus pandemic hit the urban economy severely and sent millions of workers back to their villages. For years, debts and bankruptcies have led farmers to high suicide rates.
What they want?
Protesters challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his efforts to reshape agriculture in India.
Protesters are demanding that Modi repeal recent agricultural laws that would minimize the government’s role in agriculture and open up more space for private investors. The government says the new laws would free farmers and private investment, bringing growth. But farmers are skeptical, fearing that removing state protections that they already consider insufficient would leave them at the mercy of greedy corporations.
Government support for farmers, which included guaranteed minimum prices for certain essential crops, helped India overcome the famine crisis of the 1960s. But with India liberalizing its economy in recent decades, Modi – who wants the country’s economy almost double by 2024 – considers that such an important role for the government is no longer sustainable.
Farmers, however, say they are struggling even with existing protections. They say that market-friendly laws will eventually eliminate regulatory support and leave them desolate, with the weakened economy offering little chance of a different livelihood.
How did the violence explode?
Thousands of protesting farmers invaded New Delhi on Tuesday in what was expected to be a peaceful protest during the holiday celebrations and a military parade overseen by the prime minister.
Some farmers stopped the main march and used tractors to dismantle police barricades. Many farmers carried long swords, tridents, sharp daggers, and battle axes – functional, though largely ceremonial, weapons. Most protesters did not appear to wear masks, despite the Covid-19 outbreak in India.
Police commanders sent police officers with assault rifles. They stopped in the middle of the main roads, tear gas swirling around them with their rifles aimed at the crowd. In some areas, a video showed, the police beat demonstrators with their batons to push them back.
Farmers say the violence has been fueled by the government and outside parties in an effort to derail their months of peaceful protest.
Farmers waved flags and mocked officials. They also violated the Red Fort, the iconic palace that once served as the residence of the Mughal rulers of India, and hoisted a flag on top of the walls that tends to be raised in Sikh temples.
Local television channels showed farmers placing the body of a protester in the middle of a road. They claimed the man had been shot, but police said he had died when his tractor overturned.
The Indian government has temporarily suspended Internet services in areas that have been protest centers for months, an Interior Ministry official confirmed.