Thousands of Farmers Protest in Delhi Seeking Better Crop Prices

Pratik Parija
·3 min read
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India’s agitating growers gathered in the capital just weeks before general elections to pressure the government to succumb to their demands, raising the risk of a prolonged tussle.

The protest ground in the heart of New Delhi was packed with men in yellow or green turbans and women in traditional cloths, some of whom had started their journey from neighboring states a day earlier. Farmers are a major voting bloc and the swarms marked the escalating tensions between the two sides, with another group camped at the Punjab-Haryana border for weeks.

The cultivators have regrouped after calling off their year-long agitation in late 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government agreed to repeal three controversial farm reform laws and promised to consider their demand of assured crop prices. However, no progress has been made yet to ensure remunerative returns for agricultural goods.

Modi, who will seek a third five-year term in the office in elections likely later this summer, has been cautious in dealing with the situation, aware of the farmers’ political clout.

Authorities have beefed up security in the city to prevent any violence. The movement of vehicles has either been suspended or regulated around the protest area, leading to traffic chaos.

Davinder Kaur, 43, wearing a yellow scarf, traveled with her husband and friends to the capital from Gurdaspur in Punjab. She said that there should be a law to ensure attractive prices and pension benefits akin to government employees.

“We have to come out on the streets,” Kaur said. “This is a fight for the survival of the farming community.”

The protesters carried placards with slogans such as “No Farmers, No Food,” “Farmers Feed the World,” and “Stop Privatization of Government Industries.”

The government periodically sets the floor price for about two dozen crops. The Food Corporation of India and other state-run agencies buy mainly wheat and rice from some states for various welfare programs, such as free grains to about 800 million people every month. In places, where the government doesn’t actively purchase or buys only a few commodities, market prices plunge.

The farmers are demanding a legal guarantee that they always get equal to or more than the minimum support price for their agricultural products. The government says that such a move could fuel inflation. Food inflation rose in February to 8.7% from a month earlier. The growers are also demanding that their loans be waived off.

“Modi is neglecting our issues,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, a farmer leader from Punjab. “Why can’t the government waive farm loans, if corporate loans were eligible for such a treatment,” he said, referring to the government bailout of some companies.

The authorities last month offered to ensure minimum prices for some commodities, including corn and pulses. The agitators rejected the proposal, saying it fell short of their expectations.

India is the world’s second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugar and cotton. There are millions of smallholders in the country, each owning less than 2 hectares (5 acres) of land.

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