(New Delhi) Thousands of Indian farmers were packing their belongings and dismantling tent villages on the outskirts of New Delhi on Saturday in order to return home after a year of protests against the government’s agrarian policies.
Hundreds of them were dancing and celebrating “victory” on Saturday morning as they lifted roadblocks and dismantled makeshift shelters on major highways.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed parliament last month to repeal the three land reforms that protesters said would allow private companies to control the country’s agricultural sector.
However, the protesters initially refused to leave their camps, putting forward other demands, such as a guarantee of fixed minimum prices for their agricultural products.
The government has promised to set up a commission on the subject and is committed to stopping the prosecution of farmers who burn crop stubble, accused of polluting the air in New Delhi every winter.
ANUSHREE PHOTO FADNAVIS, REUTERS
Farmers leave a protest site in Singhu.
Authorities also agreed to pay compensation to the families of hundreds of farmers who they say died during the protests and the stay of criminal proceedings against the protesters.
“We were determined to protest for as long as needed. But we are all happy that the government has accepted our demands and that we can return home, ”Sativinder Singh, one of the demonstrators, told AFP.
“It is a great day for the farmers because we can return peacefully to our homes,” he added.
“The government will now have to keep the promises made to us,” Baljot Bawja, another protester, told AFP.
“We have no intention of coming back, but if the government goes back on its promises, we will not hesitate to do so,” he added.
The agricultural laws Mr. Modi wanted were passed in September 2020 to allow farmers to sell their produce to buyers of their choice, rather than turning exclusively to state-controlled markets ensuring them a minimum support price ( PSM) for certain foodstuffs.
Many small farmers were opposed to it, believing themselves threatened by this liberalization which, according to them, risked forcing them to sell off their goods to large companies.
After protests in Punjab and Haryana in the north, tens of thousands of farmers headed for the capital, where they were violently pushed back by police, the start of a stalemate between the two sides that lasted a year.
This farmer movement has been the biggest crisis for the Modi government since taking office in 2014.