By Ujwala P and Hugo Barcia
New Delhi, Feb 13 (EFE).- The roads entering the Indian capital of New Delhi on Tuesday donned a war look with barricades, barbed wires and a large deployment of security forces to keep out farmers of neighboring states, who are marching towards the city demanding pro-agrarian measures and safeguards.
The demonstrating farmers’ march from the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh seeks to pressurize the defiant Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led administration into giving in to their demands as it gears up for the general elections slated for this year.
At Kundli, the northernmost border of Delhi, around 1,000 policemen from various departments, including the specialized Rapid Action Force and Central Reserve Force, stood guard amid massive sand-filled containers, and riot control vehicles, while cranes lifted cement blocks onto the road.
Ironically, the sign right above on National Highway 44 read “Welcome to Delhi.”
“They (farmers) won’t make it here, they have to cross Haryana first…tear gas is being fired on them there,” a Delhi Police official, who did not want to be named, told EFE. Consequently, clashes broke out between the farmers and the police in Haryana.
The demonstrators, backed by several farmers’ associations, are demanding the government enact a law that guarantees Minimum Support Prices (MSP), a government policy created to protect the price of crops in the face of market fluctuations.
This was one of the most contentious topics in the mass protests two years ago by tens of thousands of Indian farmers who camped for nearly 15 months outside Delhi, opposing an agrarian reform that the Indian government was ultimately forced to repeal in November 2021.
The government run by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised to set up a panel to ensure MSP for all farm produce but two years on, farmers see little progress made.
“The main demand is MSP for all crops (…) this was part of an agreement with the government dated Dec. 9 2021. So far the government has not implemented the agreement so we are all on (the) struggle,” the leader of one of the protesting farmer’s groups, P Krishna Prasad, told EFE.
The prime minister “has not kept his word, that is why the farmers are having to come back,” Tanvir Bharthi, a supporter of the farmers’ protest, told EFE.
Bharthi and a group of men gathered at the Kundli border shouted “Long live farmers’ unity” as hundreds of police personnel with body protectors, batons, respirators, anti-riot guns, and helmets stood vigilant.
There have been sporadic demonstrations by farmers since the mass protests of 2021. In August, hundreds of farmers marched to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, calling for the government to fulfill its promises.
The return of farmers to the streets comes ahead of the general elections, expected to be held this summer, posing a significant challenge for Modi and the BJP, looking to secure a third consecutive term in power. EFE
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