New Delhi, Feb 23 (EFE).- Several peasant organizations have called for a “Black Friday” demonstration in India following the death of a farmer in anti-government protests earlier this week.
The protesting farmers, who have been demanding government guarantees for better crop prices for almost two weeks, said the pan-India was to express their grief over the death of a protester in clashes with police during their march that has been halted on its way to the Indian capital, New Delhi.
Peasant leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters that they “will observe ‘Black Friday’ to condole the death of a farmer at the Khanauri border crossing,” some 200 km from Delhi, in the northern state of Punjab.
Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a coalition of over 40 farmer unions, said, the day would be marked by burning effigies, torchlight processions, and protest demonstrations against police repression.
An SKM press statement urged the state government in Punjab to press charges “against the police for the murder,” and damages to several tractors at the protest site.
The Indian police have stopped the farmers marching from Punjab to the capital as they pressure the government for pro-agrarian measures and safeguards.
Their demand is the enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price policy to protect the price in the face of market fluctuations.
But since the farmers began marching on Feb. 13, Indian security forces have barricaded all entrance points to New Delhi and fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the protestors.
On Wednesday, Shubh Karan Singh, 23, was reportedly killed at the Khanauri border during clashes with the police, while three others were seriously wounded.
Singh “died in police firing” when the neighboring state of Haryana’s police “crossed the border illegally and shot at the protestors,” the SKM said.
The farmer unions have blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for conspiring with the state forces “to carry out severe repression on the protestors” and have demanded the resignation of the Haryana state chief minister.
Thousands of farmers on hundreds of tractors from Haryana and Punjab are marching to the capital to press home their demands, which include pensions for farmers, debt waivers, and the withdrawal of police cases filed against demonstrators during the 2021 protests.
India witnessed a massive farmer protest between 2020 and 2021, when thousands of farmers camped for almost 15 months outside Delhi, opposing an agrarian reform of the Indian government.
Modi had to bow to pressure and repeal a newly enacted law, which farmers said gave too much power to big companies by deregulating the market.
Two years later, farmers’ associations say the government has not met all their demands. EFE
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