NEW DELHI – Months of protests by Indian farmers turned violent on Tuesday when security forces used tear gas and water cannons on some of the tens of thousands of tractors that broke through barriers to escape police-approved routes around the capital.
The farmers, who have been campaigning in New Delhi for almost two months to demand the repeal of new agricultural laws, have planned a tractor rally to coincide with a military parade celebrating India’s Republic Day. The farmers agreed not to start their protest before the Republic Day parade ended, but some protesters started early and did not stick to the planned route.
A farmer threw a tear gas cane at police in New Delhi during Tuesday’s protest against the government’s recent agricultural laws.
Photo:
sajjad hussain / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
In some corners of the capital, police tried to stop them by hitting the crowd with batons. Local media broadcast scenes of farmers bumping their tractors into buses parked to block roads and contain them.
Some metro stations have been shut down and the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has ordered that the internet be turned off in some areas in and around Delhi.
More than 80 police personnel were injured during the protests, Delhi police spokesman Anil Mittal said. Delhi police said a group of protesters carrying horses had charged police with roadblocks in one incident.
“This protest has damaged many public properties and injured many police officers,” Delhi police said in a statement. “We call on the protesters to keep the peace.”
Vikram Singh, a joint secretary of the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, a nationwide body of about seven million farmers, said most of the protesters were peaceful. He said at least one farmer was killed during the protest.
Farmers demand that the laws that allowed the old distribution system, which was driven by parliament in September, with little debate, be repealed.
Photo:
money sharma / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
“For the past two months, our movement has been peaceful and disciplined. “The use of force by the police has led to chaos,” he said. Singh said. “The government is playing with the farmers’ emotion.”
The protests are the biggest challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014. Mr. Modi supports an ambitious overhaul of India’s agricultural sector through new farming laws as part of a larger plan to help the country’s economy recover from one of the world’s worst Covid-19 recessions.
The government says the laws will undermine the government’s control over agricultural markets in the hope that more competition and involvement in the private sector will streamline and modernize the sector. Protesting farmers are worried that the laws will drastically reduce government support.
The laws were moved by parliament in September with little debate. Farmers rallied with the capital in November, demanding that the laws be repealed. Government and farm leaders held more than ten meetings, and Mr. Modi’s government has offered to postpone the implementation of the laws by 18 months.
The protesting farmers are concerned that the laws are the beginning of the dismantling of a system of regulations, subsidies and support that strengthens their meager income. The majority come from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, which are most dependent on the system of government.
Many economists have been advocating for years for the type of change Modi is making, saying it will encourage investment and encourage innovation and efficiency. The deregulation is supposed to help increase the income for farmers and lower the prices for consumers by reducing the number of intermediaries concentrated by the government, and to give businesses more reason to invest in the industry .
Farmers tried to move barriers near New Delhi during the tractor protest against farm laws on Tuesday.
Photo:
anushree fadnavis / Reuters
While the average farmer and consumer may ultimately benefit, advocates of the policy say it will still be a difficult change for many traders, who are exposed to more competition, and farmers who fear they will lose buyers who have to buy their grain . and produce at fixed prices.
Prime Minister Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is consolidating power at national and state level, and many economists expected that he would be able to use his dominant position to push through unpopular but essential innovations. The farm laws were one of the most ambitious efforts of the BJP to change the way the Indian economy is managed.
Some economists and investors have said they will look into whether Mr. Modi decides that the effort is not worth the hit his party can get in the polls.
“Agricultural reform was in arrears, and the government has the numbers and support to bring about these changes,” said Mihir Sharma, head of the economics and growth program at the think tank Observer Research Foundation in Delhi. “It would be unfortunate if it gave in to protests that were completely predictable.”
—Vibhuti Agarwal and Krishna Pokharel contributed to this article.
Write to Eric Bellman at [email protected] and Rajesh Roy at [email protected]
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