Farmers Protests in India

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Farmers protesting against new agriculture laws in India have broken through police barricades around the capital, Delhi, and entered the grounds of the city’s historic Red Fort, in violent scenes that overshadowed Republic Day celebrations. Police hit protesters with batons and fired teargas to disperse the crowds after hundreds of thousands of farmers, many on tractors or horses, marched on the capital. One protester died in the clashes and dozens were injured

for anyone who wasn't aware protests have been going on in india for several months now due to laws passed back in september that would hurt farmers
the general strike that happened in november was a part of this

edit:
some more context - https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/this-winter-our-hearts-are-burning-embers/
The farmers are protesting against these three laws: The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020.

They see these laws as essentially handing over their right and stake in agriculture to the country’s most powerful corporations, leaving them at the mercy of these big businesses. “If this is not treachery, then what is?” asks one voice in the dark.

“We farmers have had experience of these corporates before – and we don’t trust them. They have betrayed us earlier, and we are not fools. We know our rights," said one of the many voices as I walked through the camps set up in Singhu that late evening.

Aren’t they worried about the stalemate here, when the government is rejecting any possible repeal of the laws? Will they hold out?

"We are strong,” says another cultivator from Punjab. “We are making our own food and distributing it to others as well. We are kisans, we know how to stay strong."
 
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Lakhs of farmers across India are bitterly opposed to the three laws passed by Parliament in September, which the Central government claims will give farmers more options for selling their harvest and improve crop pricing. But the farmers believe the laws will dismantle price safeguards and leave them at the mercy of corporations.

With the police blocking farmers from entering Delhi to protest the laws, border crossings into the capital – places like Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur – have turned into giant protest sites, swept by cold winds.

A crowdsourced list prepared by volunteers working with farmer groups has recorded the deaths of at least 58 farmers at these protest sites.

Furman Singh Sandhu, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab, part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha or joint alliance of farmers unions protesting against the farm laws, claimed the number of deaths has exceeded 70. “The major cause is heart attack and the cold for senior citizens,” said Sandhu. “Most younger farmers died in accidents.”

Scroll.in was not able to independently verify these numbers. But conversations with the families of 10 farmers who died and their fellow protestors confirmed that the impasse over the farm laws was taking a heavy toll – particularly on those braving a harsh winter with temperatures dipping to a minimum of 1.1 degrees.

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Today the farmer protests continue in Delhi’s blistering heat and raging COVID-19 outbreak. Protesters have declared that they will remain either until Modi repeals his agricultural reforms or until he loses his 2024 reelection bid, whichever comes first. And this isn’t just talk—inside the protest camps there is infrastructure for the long haul. Farmers camped on the city’s outskirts have built community kitchens, clinics, foot-massage parlors, and a fixture of many farmer protests, libraries. Farmers understand their fates have always turned on what they know and what they’ve been allowed to plant. They exchange knowledge from books and seeds freely.

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Farmers in Punjab and Haryana are celebrating the news, raising flags of victory and distributing sweets. But they say the fight is not over.
"We have no faith in a verbal promise. Unless we see it in writing that the laws have actually been repealed, we will stay here," Raj Singh Chaudhary, a 99-year-old protester, told the BBC's Salman Ravi.
 
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