NEW DELHI (AP) – Tens of thousands of farmers drove a convoy of trekkers to the Indian capital as the country celebrated Republic Day on Tuesday amid agricultural protests that grew into a rebellion and toppled the government.
The capital’s roads are teeming with rows upon rows of tractors with flags of India and farm unions. Farmers, with distinctive colorful turbanes, shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and what they call his ‘black laws’. Thousands of others marched on foot while dancing and singing, and in one place they were overloaded with petals by residents, some of whom recorded the unprecedented rally on their phones.
“We want to show Modi our strength,” said Satpal Singh, a farmer who moved into the capital with his family of five on a tractor. “We will not give up.”
Police in unruly equipment tear gas and water cannon at two sites use the protesters barricades would collapse, pushing back. Authorities also parked large trucks to block multiple routes so farmers would not rush to the inside of the capital.
The farmers’ leaders said more than 10,000 tractors had to march through the capital for the protest and thousands of volunteers would try to help police keep order.
The protests were offset by the new agricultural laws passed by parliament in September. Modi’s government insists the laws will benefit farmers and increase production through private investment, but farmers fear that cartelisation and commercialization of agriculture will destroy their earnings.
Farmers first tried to march to New Delhi in November, but were stopped by police. Since then, they have become uncomfortable due to cold winter temperatures with food and fuel supplies and threatened to besiege the capital until the farm laws are repealed.
The government has offered to amend the laws and suspend their implementation for 18 months. But farmers insist they will decide with nothing less than a complete recall. They are planning a march on foot to the Indian parliament on February 1, when the country’s new budget will be presented.
The tractor march overshadowed the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi, even as the annual military parade was scaled down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A thinner crowd gathered along the ceremonial Rajpath Boulevard in New Delhi to watch a display of the country’s military power and cultural diversity. People wore masks and took social distances as police and military battalions marched along the parade route. Several states displayed their rafts to present their culture and the military showcased its latest equipment during the parade.
Republic Day is the anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution on January 26, 1950.
Farmers are the latest group to upset Modi’s image of unfathomable domination in Indian politics.
Since coming to power again for a second term, Modi’s government has been marked by several convulsions. The economy grew strong, social strife expanded, protests erupted against discriminatory laws, and his government was questioned about its response to the pandemic. In 2019, he brought together a coalition of diverse and diverse sets: minorities and majoritys, rights activists and journalists, communists and socialists, students and teachers, including the once dormant opposition, to form a popular march against a controversial new citizenship law discriminating against Muslims.
Now, in the form of farmers, he is facing a growing uprising of India’s most influential voting bloc.
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. After accounting for a third of India’s gross domestic product, they now make up only 15% of the country’s $ 2.9 trillion.
More than half of the farmers are in debt, according to official records, 20,638 died in 2018 and 2019.
The controversial legislation has exacerbated the current resentment of farmers, who have long been regarded as the heart and soul of India but often complain that they are being ignored by the government.
Modi tried to allay farmers’ fears by mostly rejecting their concerns and repeatedly accused opposition parties of stirring up rumors. Some leaders of his party called the farmers ‘anti-national’, a label often given to those who criticize Modi or his policies.
Devinder Sharma, an agricultural expert who has been campaigning for the equality of income for Indian farmers for the past two decades, said they were 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. ”