Why Indian farmers are protesting against Modi government outside Delhi

Modi government treating farmers’ protest at par with attack from enemy country, says opposition

Tens of thousands of Indian farmers, gathered outside capital Delhi’s borders once again this week to seek guaranteed minimum crop prices, were met with tear gas bombs, barbed wire fences, and a heavy deployment of security.

The farmers from the northern “breadbasket” states of Punjab and Haryana renewed their movement from 2020 when they camped outside Delhi’s three border points in protest of contentious agricultural laws hastily passed by the Narendra Modi government in parliament.

After a year of protests, the laws were rolled back by the government with a promise to agree on a minimum support price (MSP) – a legal guarantee from the federal administration covering all farm produce.

MSP is a standard practice in India for offering blanket legal protection and compensating the farmers for essential crops at the beginning of the sowing season against the cost of production.

But on Tuesday, police fired tear gas bombs, detained a number of farmers and erected metres-long barricades on border points to stop them in adjoining Haryana.

Farmers shout slogans during a demonstration against central government over their various demands in Amritsar (AFP via Getty Images)

Police personnel stand guard next to a barrier and vehicles blocking a road to prevent farmers protesting to demand minimum crop prices from marching towards India’s capital at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in Ghazipur (AFP via Getty Images)

A blanket blackout on internet and bulk messages services has been ordered in major districts of Haryana till Thursday. The government ordered a ban on gathering of five or more people in Delhi.

The farmers are determined to seek a dialogue from the government on a fixed MSP for their crops and said they are ready for a long haul fight of months like in 2021 when they camped outside the capital for over a year, enduring a biting winter on the highways, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Modi administration, with a reputation of not bowing down to popular protests, repealed its own bill after dozens of rounds of talks as the farmers said the laws would hurt their income.

Both sides agreed on arriving at guaranteed crop prices, doubling of farmers’ income and loan waivers but they say in the past two years, the government has not delivered on its promise.

At present, it only offers financial protection against any sharp fall in farm prices by setting a minimum purchase price for certain essential crops.

Paramilitary forces block a highway to prevent farmers from marching towards India’s capital during a protest demanding minimum crop prices, at Shambhu Haryana-Punjab border near Delhi (AFP via Getty Images)

Farmers have asked the administration to extend this clause to all farm produce, and not just for essential crops.

Photos and videos on the second day of protests outside Delhi showed heavy security preparations including the first layer of deployment of paramilitary forces, then cement barricades, barbed wires and then iron gate barricades.

Political leaders monitoring the tense situation of a simmering stand-off between the Modi administration and farmers is a repeat of 2020 protests, and the government has made preparations at war-footing.

“The way they have dug ditches, blocked roads with concrete boulders and heavy vehicles, it feels like we are in the midst of a war. The government is treating the farmers’ protest at par with an attack from an enemy country,” said Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, calling out the unusually heavy force used against farmers.

Mr Modi should directly talk to the farmers and ensure justice, he added.

Another opposition leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused Mr Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of “brutal assault” on farmers.

“How can our country progress when the farmers are attacked with tear gas shells for fighting for their basic rights? I strongly condemn the brutal assault on our farmers by the BJP,” she said.

Ms Banerjee added: “Instead of suppressing their protest, the BJP must focus on humbling their inflated egos, power-hungry ambitions, and inadequate governance that has harmed our nation.”

Measures of rolling out bans on public gathering reek of authoritarianism, said Communist Party of India’s D Raja.

“On one hand, the Modi government boasts about giving Bharat Ratna to M.S. Swaminathan [Indian agriculture scientist who recommended MSP in 1960s], but it refuses to implement his report that recommended legal backing for MSP. First, they commit blunders and then they use brutal force against those who point out the blunders,” Mr Raja said.

The protests come three months before India is set to hold its federal assembly elections to elect a new parliament.

A discussion around MSP is likely to sway the manifestos released by political parties ahead of the elections.