According to Haryana’s Department of Information and Public Relations on Sunday, online access would be suspended in at least 14 of 22 districts in Haryana state near New Delhi until 5pm Monday. That order was first imposed for 24 hours in three Haryana districts on Tuesday, but has been extended every day since then.
A 48-hour hiatus was also imposed late on Friday in three other areas around the Delhi borders. The Indian Ministry of the Interior said the move was “in the interest of maintaining public safety and preventing public emergencies”.
According to officials, those blackouts should have been lifted on Sunday evening, but Paramjeet Singh Katyal, a spokesman for Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body representing protesting farmers, said the internet was still not working as of Monday.
The internet restrictions came after scenes of violence last week, as protests continue against three agricultural laws passed in September. Since the end of November, hundreds of thousands of protesters have gathered in the outskirts of New Delhi to demonstrate against changes that they say have not been consulted and that will hurt their livelihoods.
Dozens of officers were injured and a protester died when a tractor fell over during protests at the Delhi police station, police said Wednesday. More than 100 protesters are still missing, Samyukta Kisan Morcha said on Sunday.
An internet stop was also imposed in areas around New Delhi from noon to midnight on Tuesday.
Darshan Pal, a leader from Samyukta Kisan Morcha, condemned the shutdown of the Internet, calling the movements “undemocratic”.
“The government does not want the real facts to reach the protesting farmers, nor does their peaceful behavior reach the world,” Pal said in a statement on Sunday. “It wants to spread its false spin around farmers. It also fears the coordinated work of the farmers’ unions in various protest locations and tries to cut off the means of communication between them.”
Still, farmers are still taking part in the protests, Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s Katyal said Monday. “Typically these village groups are working against each other, but this time they have all united for the collective struggle,” Katyal said.
Additional Deputy Police Commissioner in Delhi, Jeetendra Meena, said police had deployed more troops on the border in case protests break out on Monday.
Concerns about democracy
The shutdowns are also taking place against a backdrop of growing press freedom concerns in India.
On Saturday, Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist reporting on the protests, was arrested on the Delhi-Haryana border, Punia’s lawyer Akram Khan told CNN Monday.
Punia has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days from Sunday, charged with hindering an officer from fulfilling his duty and of voluntarily causing pain and assault or criminal violence to deter a civil servant from duty.
“(The) accused was merely performing his journalistic duties and another journalist was detained with him, but was released around midnight,” said an application for Punia’s bail.
But Meena of the Delhi police said Punia had no ID card with him when he was caught in a scuffle between villagers and protesters. Meena said Punia incited the farmers and pushed the police.
She said there were reports of mafia violence against protesters, adding that it was important for farmers to bring their side of the story to the fore as unbalanced coverage could spark negative public opinion.
The shutdown could “set a very dangerous precedent,” she added.
“It is not like deleting specific posts or pages that you think are false or inflammatory, this is you are shutting down an entire means of communication.”
Why farmers protest
The massive farmers’ protests posed a major challenge to Modi as months of demonstrations and sit-ins across the country against his main agricultural policy have turned into a deadlock marked by stalled talks between farmers and his government.
For decades, the Indian government offered farmers guaranteed prices for certain crops, providing long-term assurance that they could theoretically make investments for the next crop cycle. The new rules allow farmers to sell their goods to anyone at any price, giving them more freedom to do things like sell directly to buyers and sell to other states.
But farmers argue that the new rules will make them worse off by making it easier for companies to exploit farm workers and by helping big companies to keep prices down. In contrast, while farmers could sell crops at higher prices when the demand is there, they might struggle to meet the minimum price in years when there is too much supply on the market.
The laws were so controversial because agriculture is the main source of income for about 58% of India’s 1.3 billion population, and farmers have been advocating for an increase in minimum guaranteed prices for years. They are the largest electoral bloc in the country, making agriculture a central political issue.
The government has held talks with leaders of more than 30 peasant unions who oppose the laws, but the talks have gone nowhere.
Last month, India’s Supreme Court issued an order to suspend the three controversial agricultural laws and ordered the formation of a four-member conciliation committee to assist the parties in the negotiation. But farmers’ leaders have turned down every court-appointed mediation committee.
According to Samyukta Kisan Morcha, at least 147 farmers died during months of protests from various causes, including suicide, traffic accidents and exposure to cold weather. Authorities have not provided an official figure on the number of deaths by protesters.