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India Farmer Protest Shuts Down Transportation, Food Markets Nationwide

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - A strike called by tens of thousands of farmers in India
   disrupted rail and road traffic and shut down some of the country's
   biggest agricultural markets on Tuesday, as protesters demanded the
   government scrap new laws that will liberalize the farm sector.

   The strike, backed by at least 15 opposition parties, was a show of
   strength ahead of a fresh round of talks due to be held between the
   government and the farmers on Wednesday.

   The epicenter of the strike is the Indian capital, New Delhi, where
   tens of thousands of angry farmers from the northern states of Punjab
   and Haryana have been squatting on five highways leading into the city
   for nearly two weeks and vowing to remain there until their demands are
   met.

   They have rejected the government's offer to amend some contentious
   provisions of the law at two rounds of talks held so far and raised
   questions over why they were not consulted before the laws were
   hurriedly passed during a short session of parliament in September.

   "If the government was so convinced that the reforms were needed, it
   needed to engage the farming community before they were enacted," says
   political analyst Neerja Chowdhury. "Can you imagine 100,000 farmers
   sitting in Delhi in the midst of cold, in the midst of Covid? Something
   is deeply agitating them for them to be coming, some with their
   families and sitting here."

   During two rounds of talks held so far, the government has tried to
   persuade the farmers that the reforms will open new opportunities and
   raise rural incomes by allowing big corporations to buy their produce.

   But farmers, who fear that private trade will pave the way for the
   government to stop its decades-old program of buying rice and wheat in
   wholesale markets at guaranteed prices, have remained adamant that the
   laws must be repealed.

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