Nearly two years after ending their year-long demonstration, thousands of Indian farmers have again taken to the streets, marching towards the national capital of New Delhi to demand guaranteed crop prices from the government.
Led by influential farm unions, the protesters are building pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration to fulfill promises made after the previous waves of agitations. Barricades and razor wires have been erected around Delhi as authorities attempt to prevent the arriving farmers from laying siege to the capital as they did in 2020.
The renewed call for action signifies the protesters’ dissatisfaction with the progress on assurances made by Modi’s government back in 2021. Their core demands center on securing Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for their produce as well as seeking solutions to perpetual indebtedness faced by farmers across the country.
Previous Protests Fought Controversial Agricultural Reforms
In September 2020, thousands of Indian farmers initiated coordinated demonstrations on the outskirts of New Delhi in opposition to three agricultural reform laws passed hastily by Modi’s government.
The divisive legislative measures aimed to deregulate India’s antiquated farming industry by removing longstanding price guarantees and allowing private corporations to have greater influence over crop storage, pricing, and sale.
Farm unions and opposition groups slammed the reforms as heavily favoring large conglomerates at the expense of India’s smallholder farmers, who feared being forced to sell their output at unregulated market prices.
Following over a year of unified dissent anchored by protest encampments around the capital, Modi announced the decision to repeal all three reform laws on November 19, 2021. The achievement marked a rare political defeat for the Prime Minister and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It also underscored the enduring mobilization power of India’s agricultural lobby.
Current Demands Spotlight Unfulfilled Government Promises
However, the protesting farmers did not immediately decamp after the repeal of the laws. They expressed their intent to continue demonstrating until the government formally accepted their list of residual demands.
Central among these was the legal codification of minimum selling prices for crops to safeguard farmer incomes against unpredictable price fluctuations.
A formal letter was eventually provided by the Modi administration on December 9, 2021, conceding to several demands like compensating families of protesters who died during the agitations. The government also consented to discussing the sought MSP assurances.
Yet according to the leading farm unions organizing the latest marches, the government has reneged on its word and failed to earnestly follow through on the agreements made.
Key protest figure Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) stated that “The government made promises to farmers in writing but didn’t keep them. They promised to form a committee to discuss MSP but it hasn’t happened so far.”
The discontent has compelled the farming community to revive collective action through the mass mobilizations across Punjab and Haryana before culminating in Delhi.
Beyond MSP, Farmers Highlight Other Ongoing Struggles
In addition to guaranteed crop rates, the demonstrators are also articulating a host of other demands reflecting the privations faced by India’s agricultural sector.
These supplementary grievances comprise wider loan waivers, land ownership rights, increased rural employment opportunities, improving access to irrigation, and providing pension schemes for farmers.
Protest representatives have also called for greater regulations on corporations selling genetically modified seeds, chemical pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers. Accusations persist on the adverse environmental and health impacts of unchecked mass consumption of these industrial agricultural inputs.
Anger continues to fester over the Modi government’s controversial 2021 push to overhaul India’s antiquated harvesting machinery regulations to allow corporate equipment suppliers greater freedom. The move incensed farm unions over capitalist intrusions into rural mechanization.
Then there are long-running efforts to advocate withdrawal from the World Trade Organization and abolishing India’s free trade agreements with other nations. Farmers have routinely blamed cheap agricultural imports for driving down domestic crop prices and undercutting incomes.
Elections Spotlight Government Mishandling of Farm Distress
The resurrected farmer agitation carries additional political weight given the looming national elections in April and May 2024 to determine the next Indian government. The strength of the desktop will shape campaign messaging and voter decisions.
Opposition parties have seized the moment to critique Modi’s unfulfilled promises and continuance of agricultural distress. Government efforts to barricade Delhi have drawn accusations of being heavy-handed and disingenuous.
Farm unions have so far spurned the administration’s renewed attempts at talks to call off the marches. Suspicions abound on the delaying tactics and offer of piecemeal solutions by the BJP regime. The coming days will determine whether Modi bites the bullet and accedes to core demands like legally protected MSPs that carry major budgetary implications.
Regardless of tactical concessions, the farmer agitations underscore deeper distress plaguing India’s vast small-scale cultivators. Overwhelming household debt burdens tied to crop failures, input costs, machinery purchases, health expenditures and marriages fuel socioeconomic instability. This feeds an unending cycle of privation from one season to the next.
Policy incoherence, climate change stresses, water scarcity, soil depletion, and crop insurance inadequacies exacerbate income uncertainty. Experts have warned that the deepening agricultural crisis and rural resentment should profoundly concern India’s politicians and policymakers.
