Protesting farmers set out on New Delhi march
MUMBAI — Indian farmers are planning to escalate their protests from Wednesday by entering the capital New Delhi by bus and train, and increasing their numbers at border points that are currently blocked by tractors.
Thousands of farmers began the “Delhi Chalo”, or Let’s go to Delhi, march last month, but were stopped by security forces about 200 kilometers north of the capital with tear gas and water cannons.
The farmers, who are demanding higher prices for their crops, intensified their protest after several rounds of failed talks.
Farmers from various states, from Kerala in the south to Madhya Pradesh in central India, will arrive in New Delhi by trains and buses on Wednesday, Ramandeep Singh Mann, a farmer leader, told Reuters.
“Farmers from Punjab and Haryana will continue protesting at the existing protest sites with tractor trolleys,” he said.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, with around 3,000 tractors, are stuck at three borders that were blocked by police and paramilitary troops with barricades.
Clashes between farmers and security forces have played on television screens for several days. Farmers said at least one protester has died in the clashes, while dozens have been injured on both sides.
The protesting farmers will also block railway lines across the country for four hours on Sunday afternoon, Mann said.
Farmers are determined to continue their protests until their demands for higher support prices, backed by law, are met, he added.
The government announces support prices for more than 20 crops each year, but state agencies buy only rice and wheat at the support level, which benefits only about 6 percent of farmers who grow those two crops.
Reduction in tax
A sharp reduction in the import tax on edible oils, to 5.5 percent from 30 percent in 2021, has led to record vegetable oil imports and dampened local prices of oilseeds such as soybean and rapeseed, farmers in western India said.
Currently, the government offers minimum purchase prices only for wheat and rice, but these have only been relatively modest increases, said Devinder Sharma, a farm and food policy expert.
During the 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule, government-fixed minimum purchase prices for rice and wheat rose 67 percent and 63 percent versus 138 percent and 122 percent over the previous decade, government data showed.
The farm sector, which accounts for around 15 percent of India’s $3.7 trillion economy, has grown at an average of around 3.5 percent a year in the last nine years, compared to over 6 percent growth in manufacturing and services.
“The disparity between urban and rural India has widened in recent years, and that imbalance will only get wider if the government does not address the crisis in agriculture,” Arun Kumar, a former economics professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.