India’s Modi announces repeal of farm laws
NEW DELHI — In a major reversal, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Friday that he would repeal the controversial agriculture laws that sparked yearlong protests from tens of thousands of farmers and posed a significant challenge to his administration.
Farmers, who form one of India’s most influential voting blocs, have camped out on the outskirts of the capital since November of last year to demand the withdrawal of the laws, which they feared would dramatically reduce their incomes.
Modi’s surprise decision, in a televised national address, came ahead of elections early next year in key states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab that are significant agricultural producers and where his Bharatiya Janata Party is eager to shore up its support. Experts said it was too early to say if it would work.
The prime minister urged the protesters to return home, but the farmers have said they will stay put until the laws are gone — a process that will begin in December when Parliament sits for its winter session.
“While apologizing to the nation, I want to say with a sincere and pure heart that maybe something was lacking in our efforts that we could not explain the truth to some of our farmer brothers,” Modi said during the address. He added: “Let us make a fresh start.“
Modi had defended the laws, which were passed in September last year, as necessary to modernize India’s agricultural sector. But farmers feared they would end a system under which the government guaranteed prices for certain essential crops — first introduced in the 1960s to help shore up food reserves and prevent shortages.
While the government said it
was willing to pledge the guaranteed prices would continue, the farmers wanted legislation saying such prices were their legal right. They contended that without guarantees, they would be at the mercy
of the markets and that would spell disaster, especially for the more than two-thirds of them who own less than 2 ½ acres of land.
Protests against the laws escalated in November last year, when farmers hunkered down on the outskirts of New Delhi, where they have camped out since, including through a harsh winter and a coronavirus surge that devastated India earlier this year.
While the protests have been largely peaceful, demonstrators in January stormed the historic Red Fort in the capital’s center — a deeply symbolic act that revealed the scale of their challenge to Modi’s government. Clashes with police left one protester dead and hundreds injured.
Dozens of farmers also died by suicide or because of bad weather or COVID-19 during the demonstrations that have drawn international support from rights campaigners and celebrities, including climate activist Greta Thunberg and superstar Rihanna.
“At last, all of our hard work paid off. … I salute the farmer brothers who were martyred in this battle,” said Rakesh Tikait, a prominent farmers’ leader.