Tens of thousands of Indian farmers have joined their guilds in camps in the suburbs of Delhi to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their protests.
According to Pak Sahafat news agency, quoted by Reuters: To put an end to the longest-running farmers ‘protest movement that swept Indian farmers across the country, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week surrendered to farmers’ demands and repealed controversial laws passed in September 2020.
In a conciliatory note, Modi pledged that his government would repeal the laws in a new session of parliament starting next week.
The government’s backlash has delighted farmers, but they say they will only stop protesting if the Indian parliament repeals all of them and commits to the “Minimum Support Price (MSP)” rules, not just for wheat and rice but also to approve for all agricultural products.
Rakesh Tikait, a prominent leader of Bharatiya Kisan, one of India’s largest agricultural unions, said: Farmers across the country have gone to camps to celebrate one year of our historic protest.
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Tikite said: We thank the government for its decision to repeal these laws, but our protests will continue until minimum support prices are set for all products. We also call for the formation of a committee to review our demands, including the closure of lawsuits against farmers.
At present, the government mainly buys wheat and rice at a minimum support price for farmers, but this safe margin only covers 6% of millions of Indian farmers.
About 700 farmers have lost their lives in the one-year protests, and Tikait said the government should compensate their families.
Tens of thousands of Indian protesters, including elderly farmers and women farmers, have experienced hot summers, scorching winters and a severe second wave of coronas during their one-year sit-in in the camps. Over the months, the main protest sites have become like temporary shelters, temporary camps with a kitchen, a barber shop and a relatively well-equipped hospital.