Indian police on Thursday arrested hundreds of farmers in the northern state of Punjab and used bulldozers to flatten the camps they built over a year ago.
The farm protesters wanted the government to increase agricultural subsidies and raise crop prices.
The farm protesters attempted to march on the national capital of New Delhi in February 2024 to press their demands, but when their march was halted at the Punjab border by security forces they threw up some temporary camps and settled down for what proved to be a 13-month stay.
The list of demands by the protesters included higher guaranteed minimum prices for their crops, a pension plan for farm workers, subsidized electric power for farms, and forgiveness for farm debts. They also wanted the police to drop cases against farm protesters, coupled with a more serious investigation of brutal attacks against farmers in 2021 that claimed eight victims.
The government of Punjab indulged the farmers’ protest camp until mounting complaints about the protesters blocking traffic and the shifting political fortunes of Punjab’s governing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) prompted state officials to take action.
The protesters went through seven rounds of talks with Punjab officials in January without reaching an agreement to end their demonstration and break up their camp. Local businesses complained of heavy losses because the protest camps were blocking two vital crossings from Punjab into the neighboring state of Haryana.
On the political front, AAP is a fairly young party that once had big dreams of becoming a national force to be reckoned with, but today controls only a single state government in Punjab. The party was suffering intense criticism from its opposition rival, the India Congress Party (Congress), and from the governing BJP party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing the farm protesters to run wild.
Polls showed public support in Punjab for the protesters declining, especially in big cities that were suffering from the loss of traffic across the border. There was a religious and cultural dimension to the crisis as well, since most of the farm protesters were Sikhs – the majority religion in Punjab – while the business community in the state is largely Hindu.
The AAP government of Punjab clung to a vague hope that the Congress party would win big in Haryana’s elections in October, and would allow the farm protesters to march all the way through Haryana to New Delhi, completing the journey they began in February 2024. Those hopes were dashed when Prime Minister Modi’s BJP party, which seemed to have lost some steam in the last national election, came roaring back from and retained control of Haryana.
Leaders of the farm protest movement were shocked at how suddenly, and quickly, Punjab officials moved to break up the protest camps on Thursday, but the handwriting was on the wall after those seven rounds of talks in January went nowhere.
Police officials said there was “no resistance,” as the protesters were warned of the clearance operation in advance. In addition to bulldozing their tents and stages, police took hundreds of the demonstrators into custody, including movement leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal. Dallewal was removed from the site in an ambulance, as he was weak from a hunger strike.
AAP leaders insisted they still supported the farmers and their demands, but could no longer tolerate disruptions at the state border.
“Let’s work together to safeguard Punjab’s interests. Closing highways is not the solution,” Punjab Vice President Tarunpreet Singh Sond wrote on social media platform X.
The farm protest movement responded by angrily accusing AAP of throwing in with deep-pocketed business leaders and becoming an obedient lackey of the BJP party.
A movement spokesman told The Hindu on Friday that all of the movement’s leaders would join Dallewal on his hunger strike.
“All of us are fearing arrests and have not gone to our houses. Both the BJP and the AAP are behind this conspiracy against farmers,” the spokesman said.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.