BJP’s government continues its stubbornness after deregulating crop prices
A nationwide strike by farmers continues in India as the government and farmers disagree on the controversial law that will deregulate crop prices. The farmers have been on strike for two weeks now and are blocking the critical highways to New Delhi. All routes from Ghazipur to Delhi have been blocked by the farmers, who are only allowing emergency vehicles such as ambulances to pass through.
An agricultural country
Despite urbanization and the technological boom, 60% of the Indian population is connected with farming in some form or shape. By deregulating the crop prices, the government leaves the ordinary farmer at the mercy of wealthy middlemen to decide the prices. Currently, the farmers can sell the crop to the government if they cannot find a buyer at the government’s minimum price. If the law comes into effect, this will no longer be the case. The already exploited farmers in India see this is as their financial death.
Modi insists on the “Black Law”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi insists that the law will benefit the farmers by selling their products through private investment. However, farmers are discontent because they were not consulted in the matter. They also do not expect the reforms to benefit them and call it a “black law.”
“We will lose our lands, we will lose our income if you let the big business decide prices and buy crops,” Gurnam Singh Charuni, one of the protesting farmers, told the BBC. “We don’t trust big business. Free markets work in countries with less corruption and more regulation. It can’t work for us here,” he said.
BJP Government’s heavy-handedness continues
The ultra-right-wing Hindu Nationalist BJP government has continued to show stubbornness in this case as well. Protesters have been tear-gassed and baton-charged. Some leaders even labeled these mostly poor as terrorists for merely standing up for their rights. Many of the protestors are Sikhs, an ethnic minority primarily based in Indian Punjab and rely on farming. BJP’s attitude towards ethnic minorities certainly puts India’s so-called democratic values to shame.
Kejriwal under house arrest?
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the incumbent political party in Delhi State, alleges that the chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been put under house arrest and cannot meet the farmers. “No one has been permitted to leave or enter his house,” the Aam Aadmi Party’s said in a statement. Delhi police denied the claim.