Modi to Repeal India Farm Laws Following Protests – The New York Times

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But the farmers, already struggling under heavy debt loads and bankruptcies, feared that reduced government regulations would leave them at the mercy of corporate giants.

The repeal of the laws comes as Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party revs up its campaign in an upcoming election in the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, where many of the protesting farmers live.

After more than a dozen rounds of failed negotiations, farmers changed tactics this fall, shadowing top officials of Mr. Modi’s government as they traveled and campaigned across northern India, ensuring their grievances would be hard to ignore.

During one such confrontation in October, a B.J.P. convoy rammed into a group of protesting farmers in Uttar Pradesh, killing four protesters along with four other people, including a local journalist. The son of one of Mr. Modi’s ministers is among those under investigation for murder in the episode.

Jagdeep Singh, whose father, Nakshatra Singh, 54, was among those killed, said the decision to repeal the laws served as homage to those who had died in the difficult conditions of a year of protests — whether from exposure to extreme temperatures, heart attacks, Covid or more. According to one farm leader, some 750 protesters have died. (The government says it does not have data on this.)

“This is a win for all those farmers who laid down their lives to save hundreds of thousands of poor farmers of this country from corporate greed,” Mr. Singh said. “They must be smiling from wherever they are.”

Karan Deep Singh and Sameer Yasir contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/world/asia/india-farmers-modi.html

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