NEW DELHI – As the splendor and color of military parades go, India’s Republic Day celebrations are one of the most striking.
But on Tuesday, just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was preparing to celebrate the commemoration of the country’s constitution with another march by the military, an unlikely force was ready to stage the show.
The protesting farmers of India, who had been camping at the gates of New Delhi for two months and demanded that Mr. Modi laws that would repeal Indian agricultural reform wanted to prepare to move into the capital with thousands of trekkers.
The show of force, after the central government failed in its savage efforts to prevent the tractor march, dramatically illustrated how deep the deadlock with the farmers mr. Modi was embarrassed. Although he emerged as the most dominant figure of India after crushing his political opposition, the peasants were persistently defiant.
Mr. Modi hastened three farming laws in September that he hopes will yield private investment in a sector that has been inefficient for decades and has a shortage of money. But farmers quickly rose up against them, saying the government’s easing of regulations had left them at the mercy of corporate giants who would take over their businesses.
As their protests grew in scale and rage, with tens of thousands of farmers camping in the cold for two months and dozens of deaths among them, the government offered to amend some parts of the laws to include their claims. The country’s high court also intervened and ordered the government to suspend the laws until a decision is reached with the farmers.
But the farmers say they will not stop a recall, and that their pressure has begun to increase. In addition to their tractor march on Tuesday, they announced plans to hold a march on foot to the Indian parliament on February 1, when the country’s new budget is presented.
Tensions were high before Tuesday, with some officials claiming the protests had been infiltrated by insurgent elements who would use force if farmers were allowed into the city. A few days before the tractor march, the farmers’ leaders brought a young man before the media who they claimed had been arrested on the basis of a conspiracy to shoot the leaders on Tuesday to disrupt the protest. No set of claims could be independently verified.
There was confusion about the scope and size of the tractor march before it would begin. Local media reports, citing documents from Delhi police, said the march would only begin after the sensational Republic Day parade in the heart of New Delhi reached a climax. The reports also state that the number of tractors is limited and how long they may stay in the city.
But farm leaders at a news conference on Monday said there was no limit on time and number of tractors as long as they stayed on the routes set out by Delhi police. The maps of the routes suggested a compromise between the farmers and the police that protesters could enter the city but could not get close to sensitive institutions of power.
The leaders said about 150,000 tractors had gathered at the capital’s borders for the march, that about 3,000 volunteers would try to help police keep order and that 100 ambulances were on standby.
The farm leaders, both in statements given to the marchers and during the news conference, repeatedly called for peace as they carried out the tractor march.
“Remember, our goal is not to conquer Delhi, but to conquer the hearts of the people of this country,” they said in instructions posted online for marchers, who were told not to carry weapons – ” not even sticks “- during the march and to avoid challenging slogans and banners.
“The trademark of this agitation was that it was peaceful,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, one of the movement’s key leaders. “My request to our peasant brothers, to our youth, is that they keep this movement peaceful. The government is spreading rumors, the agencies have started misleading people. Beware of that.
“If we remain peaceful, we have won. If we become violent, Modi will win. ”
Hari Kumar reported.