Indian farmers nix govt offer, to march again

Protesting farmers in India who are demanding guaranteed crop prices say they would continue their march to New Delhi after rejecting a government proposal they have described as unfavorable to them.

The farmers began marching toward the South Asian country’s capital last week, but their efforts to reach it have been blocked by the authorities, who have barricaded highways leading to the city with cement blocks, metal containers, barbed wire and iron spikes, in an effort to avoid a repeat of similar demonstrations in 2021, during which farmers camped in the city’s outskirts for over a year.

The leaders of the farmers said on Monday night they spurned the government’s offer of a five-year contract for guaranteed prices for five crops — including pulses, maize and cotton — instead of the 23 crops they had demanded.

The offer, made on Sunday, was “not in the interest of farmers,” Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a leader of the protest, told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

He said the farmers — tens of thousands of whom have been camping out some 200 kilometers (120 miles) from New Delhi as they waited for the offer — would resume their march on Wednesday.

“We appeal to the government to either resolve our issues, or remove barricades and allow us to proceed to Delhi to protest peacefully,” Dallewal said.

The protests renewed a movement that began over two years ago, in which tens of thousands of farmers hunkered down on the capital’s edges for over a year against agriculture laws that the government ended up repealing.

This time, farmers who rode on tractors from neighboring Haryana and Punjab states say the government has failed to make progress on other key demands from the previous protests.

The government protects agricultural producers against sharp drops in farm prices by setting a minimum purchase price for certain essential crops, a system that was introduced in the 1960s to help shore up food reserves and prevent shortages. The system can apply to 23 crops, but the government usually offers the minimum price only for rice and wheat.

The farmers say guaranteed minimum support price for all 23 crops would stabilize their incomes. They are also pressing the government to follow through on promises to double their income, waive loans and withdraw legal cases brought against them during the 2021 protests.

Several meetings between farm leaders and the government have failed to end the deadlock. Piyush Goyal, one of the ministers negotiating with the farmers, told PTI that some of the demands were “deep and policy-driven,” which made it more difficult to find a resolution.

The protests come at a crucial time for India, where national elections are expected in the coming months and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win.

Farmers are particularly important to Modi’s base. Northern Haryana and a few other states with substantial farmer populations are ruled by the BJP.