Indian farmers return after year-long protest

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month repealed agricultural reforms that farmers claimed would let private companies control the country's agriculture sector.

Hundreds of farmers danced and celebrated the victory as they began removing roadblocks and dismantling thousands of makeshift homes along major highways.
AFP

Hundreds of farmers danced and celebrated the victory as they began removing roadblocks and dismantling thousands of makeshift homes along major highways.

Thousands of Indian farmers have headed home following a year-long protest against the government's agriculture policies.

Hundreds of farmers danced and celebrated the victory early Saturday as they began removing roadblocks and dismantling thousands of makeshift homes along major highways in the outskirts of Delhi.

They lit firecrackers, hugged each other and distributed sweets as blaring loudspeakers played patriotic and revolutionary songs dedicated to the agitation.

At Singhu, one of the protest sites, long queues of lorries and tractors packed the highway heading north into their home states of Haryana and Punjab.

"We were determined to protest as long as it had taken. But all of us are happy that the government accepted our demands and we are going back to our homes," Sativinder Singh, one of the Singhu protesters, told AFP.

"It is a big day for the farmers as we can peacefully go back to our homes," he said.

In a rare retreat last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced and pushed through parliament the repeal of three contentious laws that farmers claimed would let private companies control the country's agriculture sector.

READ MORE: Why are Indian farmers protesting for over a year?

Farmers in India have political heft due to their sheer numbers – tens of thousands had camped out since November 2020 to protest against the laws in the biggest challenge to the Modi government since it came to power in 2014.

Year-long protests

The three agricultural laws passed in September 2020 aimed to deregulate farm produce markets from state control and allow private companies to enter the sector -- on which two-thirds of India's more than 1.3 billion population rely for a living.

The government said the laws were a necessary reform but farmers opposed the move, saying it would leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

Farmers started local protests in Punjab and Haryana– India's breadbasket states – before tens of thousands headed to New Delhi to press their demands.

But they were violently stopped by police at the borders of New Delhi, triggering a year-long impasse that saw authorities erect concrete and steel barricades and metal spikes to stop their advance.

READ MORE: India's farmers end year-long protests against agricultural reforms
Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party is campaigning in five states, including political bellwether Uttar Pradesh, for elections early next year.

Analysts say Modi's retreat on the laws came over fears of growing discontent among large sections of the rural population and the stalemate at the Delhi borders were hurting its electoral prospectus.

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