Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown how stubborn he is in refusing to back down on the controversial farm laws, which have provoked farmers’ protests at various entry points in New Delhi, with backchannel contacts failing to yield results. As the protests have gone on since September it seems that Modi’s commitment to those expected to benefit from the new laws is unwavering. The intensity of the protests may increase now that the weather, while troublesome, is turning mild. The protesters, who have withstood the rigours of winter, and of the winter rains, out in the open, show no sign of giving up.
The mixing of support for Khalistan with the farmers’ protest was shown on the recent Indian Republic Day, when protesters took over the Red Fort, and one farmer flew the Sikh flag, the Nishan Saihib, from the Fort’s flagstaff. This is easily understood, for the farmers holding the sit-in in New Delhi, belong to Haryana and East Punjab. The latter are primarily Sikhs. It may be remembered that the Khalistan Movement, as befitting a movement of mostly Sikh farmers, had more than a modicum of specific demands involving farming and dealing with agriculture. It must be remembered that if Punjabi farmers, arguably India’s best-off agriculturists, are disaffected enough to contemplate a future outside the Indian Union, farmers of other communities would also be disaffected. This is the case, as farmers are now protesting all over India.
The Modi government must realize that it cannot continue with this present confrontation with the famers, and not just because of the electoral losses it will face in a country that is still largely agricultural. Modi cannot afford the protests to turn violent, even though that is what many want to happen. He must also remember that though his government does control the New Delhi police, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party is in power in the Union Territory, which means he cannot do anything he wants. Modi is now courting great unpopularity in the rural areas, as he seems not to realize that farmers’ distress is leading to more farmers; suicides every year, all over India.
