NEW DELHI: Thousands of Indian farmers cleared their protest sites on the outskirts of New Delhi, ending their yearlong demonstrations as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government repealed its controversial agricultural reforms.
Farmers from the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where the country’s agriculture is concentrated, dismantled their camps in the capital where they have protested since last year against three laws passed in September 2020 that deregulated the agricultural sector.
After repealing the laws in late November, the government on Thursday also agreed to accept other demands that included the dropping of all legal cases filed against farmers over the demonstrations, the legalization of the minimum support price for agricultural goods, and compensation to the families of protesters who lost their lives over the past year.
Celebrating their win on Saturday, farmers began returning home. “No doubt it’s a major democratic victory of common farmers,” Avatar Kaurjiwala, who arrived to protest in Delhi from Patiala district in Punjab, told Arab News.
Kaurjiwala, 55, was staying at a demonstration site in Delhi’s Singhu area since November last year.
“From day one, we were adamant that we would make this government bend and accept our demand because the three farm laws were a threat to the survival of farming communities in India,” he said.
Over 50 percent of India’s workforce is dependent on agriculture, and farmers’ biggest fear was that the controversial farm laws would leave them at the mercy of corporations and market forces, drastically reducing their incomes.
“It’s also a lesson for the corporate sector that they cannot run roughshod over the government and take the people of the country for granted,” Kaurjiwala added.
Charanpreet Brar from the northern Indian state of Rajasthan also spent more than a year at a protest site in Delhi.
“We have planned a celebration in my district in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, today, once we get there later in the evening,” Brar said.
“It’s time for farmers across states to consolidate their power and unite on a single platform. I am sure after this that no government will take us for granted.”
As they marched from the capital to their home districts, they were welcomed by local residents with garlands and food at some stopping points.
Sarwan Pandher, a farmer leader from Punjab, said such gestures showed “we were right in our agitation, and the farmers’ movement reinforced people’s trust in democracy.
“There is a sense of satisfaction and elation that we are returning home.”
“The biggest challenge was to take on the large section of the government-supported media,” Hrinder Happy, a researcher who joined the movement last year and looked after its media relations, told Arab News. “But gradually, farmers with their sheer sincerity managed to turn the narrative to their cause.”
Farmer union leaders have announced they would meet again in mid-January to review the implementation of the new concessions pledged by the government.
The concessions came as Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, where agriculture dominates the economy, will hold local elections next year.
Farmers are the most influential voting bloc, and winning the local polls may prove crucial for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in general elections in 2024.