Indian peasants attempt to advance again towards Delhi

Thousands of farmers on tractors have resumed efforts to march towards the capital, New Delhi, after talks with the government over demands for higher crop prices failed on Wednesday.

The protests have raised fears of a repeat of the year-long sit-in on highways in the capital, which forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to abandon its agricultural reform plans in 2021.

According to the French news agency AFP, police have been holding the farmer protesters for the past week near the small village of Shambhu in Patiala, several hours from their destination.

Attempts by the police to disperse the protesters with heavy firing of tear gas again failed and the farmers vowed to continue by jumping over the metal spikes and concrete barriers erected to stop their protest. .

Clashes between police and protesters on Wednesday resulted in several injuries, while farmers claimed the death of one protester during the use of force by the police.

On the other hand, a police statement has denied the news spread by the protesters that a farmer has been killed in the clashes. On the contrary, the force claimed that around a dozen police personnel were injured after the protesters used sticks and stones.

Farmer Jagmohan Singh, 45, told AFP: ‘We assure you that we will break all these barriers and once we break them, we will die only when we reach Delhi.’

Police used drones to fire tear gas at the roadside protest camp.

In response, the farmers distributed protective goggles and tried to shoot down the drones by shooting them with slingshots and flying kites to obstruct their paths.

In the state of Haryana, the police warned the owners not to provide vehicles to the protesters and that they would be responsible for any damage.

According to the British news agency Reuters, on February 13, thousands of farmers, traveling on trucks and trolleys loaded with food, bedding and other goods, started a march towards the capital New Delhi for their demands.

The protests began after farmer unions and the Modi government failed to reach an agreement on minimum crop prices.

Despite the passage of almost two weeks, the security forces have stopped the protesters on the border of Punjab and Haryana, about 200 km from Delhi.

A Haryana police spokesman told Reuters news agency that “tear gas shelling is ongoing and will continue until the situation is brought under control.”

The general secretary of the farmers’ organization ‘Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sanghrash Committee’, Sarwan Singh Pandhar, while talking to the journalists, said that “Either the government should accept our demands or democratically give us the right to go to Delhi, but they have not done that either.” Stayed.’

After similar year-long protests by farmers in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government pledged to repeal some agricultural laws and find ways to ensure support prices for all agricultural produce.

Farmers say that the government is showing slowness in fulfilling the last promise.

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