Farmers to extend protests after rejecting court proposal
Demonstration leaders say they plan to march into Delhi later this month
Tens of thousands of farmers will continue their protests against India’s new farm laws until they are repealed, rejecting the top court’s decision tokeep themin abeyance and adding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s woes.
The siege of a key roadway connecting the country’s capital where the farmers have been camping for the past two months will continue, protest leaders said, as will plans to march into the city later this month. A three- judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde on Tuesday barred the implementation of the law until the court hears the matter and arrives at a judgement. It also set up a panel tomediate between the government and the protesters and submit a report to the court.
“Suspending the implementation of the laws as an interim measure is welcome but is not a solution,” the leaders camped on capital NewDelhi’s outskirts said in a statement. The government “must repeal the laws.”
Fear of corporate control
Farmer leaders, opposition and some of Modi’s allies fear the laws will lead to corporate control over agricultural production, processing, and markets and lower crop prices by removing government purchases causing losses to cultivators. While the government maintains that farmers are being misled and the new laws will lift curbs on purchases, remove middlemen and increase farmers income, the court’s decision to suspend the laws adds to its challenges. Modi had in his first term promised to double farmers’ incomes by 2022.