India blocked mobile internet services in several areas around Delhi on Saturday as protesting farmers began a one-day hunger strike after a week of clashes with authorities killing one dead and hundreds injured.
Angry at new agricultural laws that, according to them, benefit large private buyers at the expense of producers, tens of thousands of farmers have been camping at protest sites on the outskirts of the capital for more than two months.
A planned trekking parade on Republic Day last Tuesday turned violent when some protesters deviated from the agreed routes, broke down barriers and clashed with police using tear gas against them.
Sporadic clashes between protesters, police and groups shouting slogans against farmers have since erupted on several occasions.
The Indian Interior Ministry said on Saturday that internet services at three locations on the outskirts of Delhi where protests were taking place were suspended until 23:00 (1730 GMT) on Sunday to maintain ‘public safety’.
Indian authorities often block internet services if they believe there will be unrest, although the move is unusual in the capital.
At the main protest site near the town of Singhu in the northern suburbs of the city, there was an increased police presence on Saturday when hundreds of tractors from Haryana, one of the two states in the middle of the protests, showed up.
Farm leaders said that the hunger strike on Saturday, along with the commemoration of the death of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, would show Indians that the protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful.
“The peasant movement was peaceful and will be peaceful,” said Darshan Pal, a leader of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha group of farm unions that organized the protests.
“The events of January 30 are organized to spread the values of truth and non-violence.”
Agriculture employs about half of India’s 1.3 billion people, and unrest among the approximately 150 million owners is one of the biggest challenges facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government since the 2014 rule.
Eleven rounds of talks between farm unions and the government could not break the deadlock. The government has offered to stop the laws for 18 months, but farmers say they will end their protests for nothing less than a complete repeal.