To escape the stinging gas and clouds of smoke, thousands of farmers, some wearing medical masks, ran into the fields surrounding their gathering point on a highway about 200 km north of New Delhi.
The police action came as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a fresh offer to resume talks on the farmers’ demands. Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda urged the farmers to resolve their grievances through the talks.
“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 farmers’ groups rejected the government’s previous proposal for five-year contracts and guaranteed support prices for produce such as corn, cotton, and pulses.
Farmers, primarily from the northern state of Punjab, have been demanding higher prices supported by law for their crops. They constitute an influential bloc of voters whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot afford to anger ahead of the general elections due by May.
The protest continues
Sunday’s government proposal of minimum support prices to farmers who diversify their crops to grow cotton, pigeon peas, red lentils, and corn was rejected by the protesters, who wanted additional foodgrains covered.
“We want to march to Delhi peacefully. If not, they should accede to our demands,” one of the farmers’ leaders, Jagjit Singh Dallewal, said.
About 10,000 people had gathered on Wednesday, along with 1,200 tractors and wagons, at Shambhu on the state border, police in Haryana reported on X. Farmers “can hold protest peacefully and should not take the law into their own hands,” the spokesperson of the Haryana Police said.
Similar protests two years ago, when farmers camped for two months at the border of New Delhi, forced Modi's government to repeal a set of farm laws.
