NEW DELHI (AP) – Tens of thousands of farmers marched on Tuesday, riding horses and tractors into the capital of India and breaking through police barricades to storm the historic Red Fort – a deeply symbolic act that reveals the extent of their challenge to Prime Minister Narendra’s Modi’s government.
While the country was celebrating Republic Day, the protracted protests became violent as farmers waved the union and religious flags from the fortresses of the fort., where prime ministers annually raise the national flag during the August independence holiday in the country. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons and barricades set up in an attempt to prevent the protesters reaching the center of New Delhi, but the protesters in many places broke.
People were shocked to see the takeover of the fort, built in the 17th century and serving as the palace of Mughal emperors, being shown live on hundreds of news channels. Protesters, some with ceremonial swords, ropes and sticks, overwhelmed police.
The farmers have been conducting largely peaceful protests for almost two months now, demanding that new laws be withdrawn that they believe will benefit large corporate farms and destroy the earnings of smaller farmers.
The controversial legislation has exacerbated the current resentment among farmers, who have long been considered the heart and soul of India but often complain that they are being ignored by the government. As their protest has become stronger, it has cracked the government like never before as they form the most influential voting bloc in India and are also of cardinal importance to its economy.
“We want to show Modi our strength,” said Satpal Singh, a farmer who drove into the capital with his family of five on a tractor. “We will not give up.”
Farmers’ leaders said more than 10,000 tractors joined the protest, and thousands marched on foot or on horseback shouting slogans against Modi. In some places, they were overloaded with petals by residents who recorded the unprecedented protest on their phones.
Authorities used tear gas, water cannons and put large trucks and buses in roads to try to stop crowds, including rows upon rows of tractors, pushing concrete and steel barriers aside. Police said one protester was killed after his tractor overturned, but farmers said he was shot. Several bloodied protesters could be seen in television footage.
Farmers – many of them Sikhs from Punjab and Haryana provinces – tried to move to New Delhi in November, but were stopped by police. Since then, they have languished on the outskirts of the city under the winter cold and frequent rains, threatening to besiege it if the farm laws are not repealed.
“We will do as we please. You can not enforce your laws on the poor, ”said Manjeet Singh, a protesting farmer.
The government insists that the agricultural reform laws passed by Parliament in September will benefit farmers and increase production through private investment. But the farmers fear that it will leave those who keep small plots behind if large corporations win.
The government has offered to amend the laws and suspend their implementation for 18 months. But farmers insist they will decide to take nothing less than a full recall and plan to march on foot to parliament on February 1.
Farmers are the latest group to upset Modi’s image of unfathomable domination in Indian politics.
Since coming back to power for a second term, Modi’s government has been shocked by several convulsions. The economy has grown strong, social disputes have expanded, protests have erupted against laws that some see as discriminatory, and his government has been questioned over its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, the year that saw the first major protests against his administration, a diverse coalition of groups rallied against a controversial new citizenship law that, according to Muslims, discriminates.
But the latest protests – which began in northern states, which are the main agricultural producers – have caused a growing peasant uprising that is spreading rapidly to other parts of the country, posing a serious challenge to the Modi government.
Agriculture supports more than half of the 1.4 billion people in the country. But the economic influence of farmers has diminished over the past three decades. Having once produced a third of India’s gross domestic product, they are now only 15% of the $ 2.9 billion economy.
More than half of the farmers are in debt, according to official records, 20,638 died in 2018 and 2019.
Devinder Sharma, an agricultural expert who has been campaigning for income equality for Indian farmers for the past two decades, said they are not only protesting the reforms but also challenging the whole economic design of the country.
“The anger you see is compound anger,” Sharma said. ‘Inequality is increasing in India and farmers are getting poorer. Policy planners did not realize this and sucked revenue from the bottom up. The farmers are just demanding what is right for them. ”
Modi tried to dismiss the farmers’ fears as unfounded and repeatedly accused opposition parties of stirring up rumors.
The protests overshadowed Republic Day celebrations, in which Modi oversaw a traditional lavish parade along the ceremonial Rajpath Boulevard showcasing the country’s military power and cultural diversity. Authorities closed some metro stations, and mobile internet services were suspended in some parts of the capital, which the government regularly used to stop protests.
The parade was scaled down due to the pandemic. People wore masks and took social distances as police and military battalions marched along the route, displaying their latest equipment.
Republic Day is the anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution on January 26, 1950.
Police said the protesting farmers away from the approved protest routes and violence and vandalism use.
The group that organized the protest, Samyukt Kisan Morcha, or United Farmers’ Front, blamed ‘anti-social elements’ who’ invaded an otherwise peaceful movement ‘.
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AP video journalist Rishabh R. Jain contributed to this report.