Indian farmers began a one-day hunger strike on Saturday in protest against new agricultural laws after a week of clashes with authorities that left one dead and hundreds injured.
Angry at what they see as laws benefiting large private buyers at the expense of producers, tens of thousands of farmers have been camped at protest sites on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi for over two months.
A planned tractor parade on Tuesday’s Republic Day turned violent when some protesters deviated from pre-agreed routes, tore down barricades and clashed with police, who used tear gas to try and restrain them.
Sporadic clashes between protesters, police and groups shouting anti-farmer slogans have broken out on multiple occasions since then.Farm leaders said Saturday’s hunger strike — which coincides with the death anniversary of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi — would show Indians that the protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful.“The farmers’ movement was peaceful and will be peaceful,” said Darshan Pal, a leader of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha group of farm unions organising the protests.“The events on January 30 will be organised to spread the values of truth and non-violence.”Agriculture employs about half of India’s population of 1.3 billion, and unrest among an estimated 150 million landowning farmers is one of the biggest challenges to the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since first coming to power in 2014.Eleven ounds of talks between farm unions and the government have failed to break the deadlock. The government has offered to put the laws on hold for 18 months, but farmers say they will not end their protests for anything less than a full repeal.
An Indian state has blocked mobile internet across most of its districts, following clashes between hundreds of protesting Indian farmers and groups of men shouting anti-farmer and pro-police slogans.
Mobile internet in 15 of 22 districts in Haryana state bordering the capital New Delhi will be unavailable until 17:00 local time on Saturday, according to a circular from the state government.
Authorities used tear gas and batons on Friday to break up the clashes at Singhu in Haryana, one of several protest sites near New Delhi.
The protesting farmers are opposing reforms which aim to deregulate farm produce markets that have for decades been organised by state bodies with minimum prices guaranteed.
Those protesting say the changes will let Indian conglomerates take over the farming industry which will ruin their livelihoods.
The government says the reforms will open up new opportunities for farmers and that it will not bow to the protesters’ demands.
Supporters of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are accused of attacking the protesting farmers, who are demanding the government to withdraw the controversial laws.
Avik Saha, a farmers leader with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, told Al Jazeera said it was “bizarre” that is appeared the governing party is waging war on the farmers of India who form more than 50 percent of the Indian population.
“Far too many people are dependent on agriculture in India for free markets to play itself out. There is too much insecurity in the minds of farmers, so the farmers want a law to guarantee their income.
“The ruling party does not want to guarantee that and they have let loose their supporters, a very small number of them, against this multitude of farmers. That is strange and that should not have been the political strategy of the ruling party.”
In a standoff between riot police and the farmers, authorities tried on Thursday night to clear another protest site in the city’s east, but most farmers refused to move and thousands more marched overnight to join them.
Their leaders said any retreat would constitute surrender.
“Concerned over police high-handedness, thousands of farmers, who were not part of the protest, have now come to bolster our movement,” Rakesh Tikait, president of one of the largest farmers unions, the Bharti Kisan Union, told the Reuters news agency on Friday.
‘Shoot the traitors’
Tensions have been building around the farmers’ camps since Republic Day on Tuesday when a tractor rally turned into a citywide rampage which left one farmer dead and nearly 400 police officers injured.
The government has deployed thousands of extra police and paramilitaries in New Delhi and around the camps since then. One small camp has been closed, as have many roads around the protest sites.
On Friday, one police officer was wounded in the hand during a scuffle with a sword-wielding farmer, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Masked men, shouting “shoot the traitors”, charged the farmers, breaching police cordons and steel barricades.
The authorities cut power and water to one protest camp at Ghazipur, but hundreds more farmers arrived overnight on tractors to reinforce what has become the biggest challenge to Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he took power in 2014.
