Indian riot police fired tear gas on Wednesday at columns of farmers on tractors seeking to breach heavily guarded barricades and march on the capital to demand higher crop prices.
Farmers in India this week launched a “Delhi Chalo”, or “March to Delhi”, in an echo of January 2021, when farmers breached barricades and rolled into New Delhi on Republic Day during their then year-long protest.
But this time around, the lines of hundreds of tractors have been stalled by fearsome blockades of concrete blocks and lines of razor wire guarded by police. The farmers are demanding a law to fix a minimum price for their crops, in addition to a clutch of other concessions including waiving loans.
Tear gas was fired at Shambhu, about 200 kilometres north of the capital on the border between Punjab and Haryana states where the main group of farmers has been stopped, AFP reporters at the scene said.
Farmers in India have political influence due to their sheer numbers, and the renewed protests come ahead of national elections likely to begin in April. Two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion people draw their livelihood from agriculture, accounting for nearly a fifth of the country’s GDP, according to government figures.—AFP
