Indian farmers continue protest despite repeal of controversial agricultural laws

Protesting farmers ride tractors and shout slogans as they march to the capital breaking police barricades during India's Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi, India, Jan. 26, 2021. (AP/File)

Indian farmers said on Monday they would continue with their protests demanding minimum support prices for all produce, despite the government’s announcement that it would repeal three contentious farming laws that first triggered the movement over a year ago.
Farmers from the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where the country’s agriculture is concentrated and yields are high, have been protesting since September 2020 against laws that deregulate the agricultural sector and, as they say, leave them at the mercy of private players.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi caved to their demands, announcing on Friday that the three laws would be withdrawn, thousands of farmers gathered in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, on Monday. 
They said protests will continue until the government introduces a law to guarantee minimum support prices, or MSPs, for all produce. The government mainly buys rice and wheat at guaranteed prices, but farmers say it benefits only a small portion of those employed in agriculture — a sector that employs some 50 percent of India’s workforce.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions, said in a letter addressed to Modi on Sunday that guaranteed prices should be made a “legal entitlement of all farmers” for all agricultural produce.
“We will continue with our protest,” said Rakesh Tikait, president of the Indian Farmers’ Union, while addressing the rally in Lucknow. “There should be guaranteed law on the MSP.”
Other demands put forward by farmers include dropping over 100 police cases registered against them with charges of vandalism and causing public disorder during protests. 
“A set of demands have been placed before the government, and the government should hold dialogues with farm unions and discuss their demands,” Ashutosh Mishra, spokesman of All India Farmers’ Struggle Coordination Committee, told Arab News. 
He added that farmers are aware the government had decided to withdraw the laws keeping in mind upcoming regional elections. Sunil Pradhan, another farming leader from Uttar Pradesh, said: “Had there been no election this government would not have backed down.”
Farmers are the most influential voting bloc in India, and winning Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, where local polls are slated for early next year, is seen as crucial for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the general election in 2024. 
Lucknow-based political analyst Ram Dutt Tripathi sees the continuing rallies as a display of a “trust deficit” between farmers and the government. 
“Farmer leaders don’t trust the Modi government, so they will wait for the actual repeal (of the laws) by parliament,” he told Arab News. “Politically the movement has upset the BJP’s (electoral) prospects.”