WHY FARMERS ARE PROTESTING IN INDIA 2024?

Nowadays, there are commonly people wants to know why farmers are protesting in India 2024 again. Now, no need to bother, let’s discuss and aware about the commonly searching queries like “what are the farmers demands”, “why only Punjab farmers are protesting”, why is Kissan Andolan happening” and “why farmers are protesting in India again”.

Farmers are demanding the legal lowest amount for their crop as they protest in New Delhi and ask the government to realize & fulfill its promises.

Thousands of farmers on trucks and tractors are marching & protesting towards the Indian capital i.e. New Delhi, to push the government to fulfill their demands, counting their guaranteed costs for their produce and debt waivers.

Police in Haryana state, which borders Delhi, on Tuesday, fired tear gas on farmers to stop them from reaching the capital, which has been changed into a fortress, refreshing memories of the 16-month-long protest by the Kisan’s/farmers two years ago. Many access points to the capital have been sealed by erecting barriers of barbed wire, cement blocks, and spikes.

Authorities have banned & stopped huge togetherness in Delhi and stopped internet services for some days in many Haryana districts ahead of the Protest to Delhi, called by farmers from Haryana and Punjab along with many other northern states.

Who is participating in the Protest?

Apart from organizations from Punjab & Haryana, unions from the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh are also participating in the protest as they demand government involvement to help the poor agriculture sector, which is central to the food security of the country.

The Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh, and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) Committee are spearheading the march. The organizers said more than 200 unions of farms are participating in the Protest in Delhi.

The SKM played a main role in the 2020-2021 March which forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cancel three farm laws that farmers feared would have benefitted the corporation at their expense. Farmers have accused the government of failing to complete their promises to farmers since then, as well as double their incomes.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has called for a nationwide rural and industrial strike to convey disapproval of the government.

About Farmers Demand: Why Farmers Are Protesting Again?

The demands of farmers are legal guarantees of the lowest and minimum support prices (MSP), which performs as a secure net for the community of farming; waivers of farm loans; and also policies rollback they say spoil farmers.

The MSP is the cost at which the purchases of crops of government from farmers, gives farmers a satisfied income for their produce and market uncertainties. The demand is for the MSP (minimum support prices) to be fixed at least 50 percent higher than the price of production of any crop.

Farmers agitate against the intended privatization of the electricity sector. State governments presently offer subsidized electricity to farmers, which helps bring input prices down. They are also demanding the compensation for the farmers who died throughout the protests of 2020-2021.

“There have been approximately 750 martyrs throughout the struggle,” said Vijoo Krishnan, the general secretary of the All India “Kisan Sabha”, an organization that participates in the present protests.

An additional demand is the release of the federal minister whose son was accused of running his car on the farmers in UP’s (Uttar Pradesh) Lakhimpur Kheri district in October 2021.

Promises Made by Modi (BJP Government)

The protests also look to ensure that the promises made by Modi’s (BJP) Bharatiya Janata Party in 2021 are acted on.

“The three acts have been reserved, but BJP-ruled states are demanding to bring them via the backdoor. Even the new budget has required privatizing post-harvest activities,” Krishnan said.

Modi’s government organized a committee to talk about farming issues, but it failed to take in representatives from Punjab, Haryana and UP (Uttar Pradesh), all important grain producers. The committee has barely made any progress.

In the meantime, farmers continue to protest and struggle with long-time issues. Debt is due to crop failures, because of, thousands of Indian farmers take their lives every year. Agriculture output has been compressed by high weather and decreasing water sources caused by climate change.

How has the BJP Government Responded?

A government allocation has supposed negotiations with the protesting farmers, but the talks have not yielded results. On Tuesday, Indian police tear-gassed and locked up some farmers who clashed with them at the border between Punjab and Haryana. Police also drop canisters of tear gas from the drone at one of the points of the border in northern Haryana state which leads to New Delhi.

Devinder Sharma, who is an Indian agricultural expert, pointed out that the farmers have been cut off from the capital of India which is Delhi and Haryana’s borders have been prepared by authorities.

“How can we stay them away from the country? from the capital? And also from the decision-making?” he asked.

About 2020-2021 Protests

At the time of the earlier March, farmers protested against the laws passed by the BJP government that permitted farmers to sell produce honestly to bulk buyers and make contract farming simple.

While Modi said the laws were designed to liberate the farmers, they encouraged the resignation of the food processing minister who is “Harsimrat Kaur Badal”, who also called the legislation “anti-farmer”. Modi was put on to withdraw the three farm laws in 2021.

In 2022, Modi’s administration assured that it would set up a panel of farmers and state officials to look for ways to ensure support costs for all farm produce. Farmers have accused the BJP government of insulation at the back of that promise.

What Shock will the Protests have on the Indian Elections

The protest comes months before a common election, which the BJP is assumed to win.

“We don’t know how this protests takings and if it results in workable solutions,” Sharma said, including, “If it lingers on, then only will it have a crash on the election.”

Farmers consist of two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion people, secretarial for almost a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product, as per the government figures. Hence, farmers form an important voting bloc, and parties try to increase their support.

Krishnan said the BJP is being destined for its “anti-farmer and anti-worker policies”.

As it looks to the farmers’ votes, the Modi government last week conferred the nation’s huge civilian honor on the previous Prime Minister and the agriculture leader Chaudhury Charan Singh and, MS Swaminathan, who led the way in the agricultural rebellion in the 1960s and ’70s.

Last Words

Therefore, we have talked about all the queries which are mostly searching such as “why farmers are protesting in India”, “what are the farmers demands”, and “why only Punjab farmers are protesting”. In this post, we have discussed all the related topics on the farmers protesting to know and aware all the people who wants to know that why farmers are protesting in India 2024 again.