NEW DELHI (INDIA) – Leaders of Indian farmers leading an agitation on the outskirts of the national capital began a one-day hunger strike on Monday against agricultural reforms of the federal government. They say the new legislations threaten their livelihoods and they want Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to withdraw the laws.
For nearly three weeks, farmers have been protesting against the new laws deregulating the agriculture sector that allows them to sell produce to buyers beyond government-controlled wholesale markets where growers are guaranteed a minimum price.
“We want them to repeal the laws,” said Gurbax Singh, a protesting farmer from the state of Punjab in the north as he and other leaders started a hunger strike at the main venue of the agitations.
Small growers fear that the new laws will bring an end to the price support system for staples such as rice and wheat, leaving them at the mercy of big businesses.
The prime minister has sought to allay the fears of farmers by telling them they will have new rights as well as opportunities.
The reforms came as three laws in September, loosening rules regarding the sale, pricing and storage of agricultural produce.
So far, six rounds of talks between the government and the farmers’ unions have ended in a fiasco.
According to the government, although the reforms can be amended, it is determined to liberalise the farming sector. Last week, the farmers rejected the proposal to amend the laws.
It is farmers from the states of Punjab and Haryana bordering New Delhi who are at the vanguard of the protests. They have set up protest camps in and around the capital.
Farmers would conduct protests at district headquarters throughout the country, said Kamal Preet Singh Pannu, a leader of the Sanyukta Kisan Andolan (United Farmers’ Protest), one of the 30 unions opposing the reforms.
