Altaf Qadri / AP
New Delhi – A months of deadlock between Indian farmers and the government on Tuesday sparked new clashes between police and protesters in the capital Delhi. At least one farmer died and dozens were injured in the skirmishes, and some police officers were also injured, officials said.
The widespread clashes were the worst violence in weeks amid what has become one of the longest-running deadlock in Indian history – and one of the biggest challenges facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The farmers planned massive rallies on Tuesday to coincide with Republic Day in India, a national holiday that always involves a massive military parade through central Delhi.
The farmers – mostly from Punjab and Haryana states, known as the “rice bowl” of India – began to protest in mid-November, marched to Delhi and set up makeshift camps on the borders of the capital. Since then they have held out, occasionally staging large tractor-led marches to the capital.
They are demanding that Modi’s government repeal three agricultural laws enacted in September that aim to deregulate the country’s agricultural sector. The farmers say the laws will help large businesses but destroy the livelihoods of smaller farmers, who are the backbone of the agricultural sector, which accounts for nearly 15% of India’s $ 2.9 trillion economy.
Altaf Qadri / AP
In December, farmers received widespread support for a one-day pan-Indian shutdown that blocked highways and railways and briefly stifled the flow of basic goods through the country.
“We will not stop”
Police had authorized farmers to hold a tractor rally on Tuesday in the outskirts of Delhi – away from the city center where Republic Day celebrations took place. But several groups of protesters deviated from the designated route and headed for central Delhi, where celebrations and parades were still going on.
Farmers began breaking barricades at border posts and a group managed to enter New Delhi’s iconic Red Fort, hoisting their own flags in addition to the Indian national flag.
Dinesh Joshi / AP
Police used tear gas and charged the protesting farmers with walking sticks when hundreds of tractors poured into the capital. The government sent additional paramilitary troops in full riot gear as the clashes escalated in the afternoon.
“We want to send a clear message to the government: we will not stop, you have to take back the laws,” said an angry protester at the Red Fort. It took the police and paramilitary forces several hours to clear the 17th-century monument.
Telephone and internet services in some parts of Delhi were cut late in the day and a few metro stations in the capital closed as the government tried to stop the protesters from coordinating.
India’s suffering farmers
Several rounds of talks between the farmer leaders and the Modi government in recent months have failed to resolve the impasse.
Last month, the government offered to stop agricultural laws, but farmers have pushed for a full rollback of the measures.
India’s agricultural sector has suffered in recent years from outdated laws, climate change-induced droughts and floods, and even grasshoppers destroy thousands of acres of crops.
Conditions have pushed thousands debt-tormented farmers to suicide. According to government data, more than 10,000 Indian farmers died from suicide in 2019 alone.