Amid escalating tensions, Indian law enforcement employed tear gas to disband protesting farmers who, undeterred by failed negotiations on price guarantees with the government, pressed forward towards the capital with cranes and excavators in tow.
Thousands of farmers, some shielding themselves with medical masks, rushed into the fields surrounding their meeting point on a highway about 125 miles north of New Delhi, desperately evading the choking gas and dense smoke.
In tandem with the police response, the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended a new proposal to restart discussions on the farmers’ demands. Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda appealed to the farmers to settle their issues through dialogue.
“After the fourth round, the government is ready to discuss all the issues” such as guaranteed prices, he posted on social network X as the march resumed.
“I again invite the farmer leaders for discussion. It is important for us to maintain peace.”
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Earlier in the week, farmer groups had rebuffed the government’s prior offer of five-year contracts and assured support prices for crops like corn, cotton, and pulses.
The farmers, mostly from the northern state of Punjab, have been demanding higher prices backed by law for their crops. They form an influential bloc of voters Modi cannot afford to anger ahead of general elections due by May.
The farmers began marching from the spot where authorities had stopped them by erecting barricades on the border of Punjab state with Haryana, blocking a key highway.
“It is not right that such massive barricades have been placed to stop us,” said one of the farmers’ leaders, Jagjit Singh Dallewal. “We want to march to Delhi peacefully. If not, they should accede to our demands.”
Flanked by police officers in riot gear, farmers gathered amid the morning mist, proudly displaying flags adorned with their union insignias along the highway, as loudspeakers urged them to defend their rights.
Some were seen on television wearing gas masks. In a late-night decision on Tuesday, the head of Haryana police ordered the immediate confiscation of the heavy equipment brought by the farmers to prevent its potential utilization by protestors in dismantling barricades.
Moreover, law enforcement also cautioned owners of similar equipment against lending or renting it to protesters, highlighting that any attempt to deploy it against security forces would be considered a criminal act.
According to information shared by police in Haryana on X, an estimated 10,000 individuals had assembled on Wednesday at Shambhu on the state border, accompanied by 1,200 tractors and wagons. Authorities alerted to the potential threat of stone-throwing, as some participants were reportedly carrying sticks and stones.
The protesters rejected Sunday’s government proposal, which offered minimum support prices to farmers diversifying their crops to include cotton, pigeon peas, black matpe, red lentils, and corn, insisting on the inclusion of additional food grains.