India settles into tense standoff after riot
NEW DELHI — The violent outburst had receded, and the farmers and their tractors had cleared the streets of the capital, but a large security presence remained in parts of the city Wednesday, a sign of tense days ahead.
A day after the months-long deadlock between farmers protesting new agriculture laws and the government of Narendra Modi erupted into a dramatic confrontation that paralyzed the city and left one farmer dead and hundreds of police officers wounded, an uneasy quiet took hold as both sides assessed their positions.
But the stalemate appeared unlikely to end soon.
On Tuesday, two months of peaceful demonstrations centered on protest camps on the city’s outskirts took a sharp turn, as farmers with tens of thousands of tractors pushed through barricades and poured into New Delhi, clashing with a police force that tried to push them back with tear gas and a baton charge.
But the farmer leaders were scrambling Wednesday. Grilled in television interviews, they played down the violence and chaos as the work of a fringe group and part of a “dirty conspiracy” by pro-government infiltrators to derail a peaceful movement.
In a sign Modi’s government was weighing its next moves, there was silence from the prime minister.
The mood at Ghazipur, one of the main protest camps, was subdued but still determined.
“We are not going back — that is not in our genetic code,” said Ringhu Yaspal, 32. “Agriculture has turned into a slow poison. It’s better to die fighting here.”