|
|
Leaders of the farmers’ protest in India that broke out more than a year ago said these demonstrations will end after Prime Minister Narenda Modi called off the controversial laws that farmers said would end their ability to make a living.
Modi assured the farmers that it was never his intention to hurt them.
“Our government is committed to farmers’ welfare, especially small farmers. We are committed to serve them fully. We brought in farm laws with good intentions,” Modi said last month.
Modi announced that New Delhi would repeal three laws that sparked deadly protests throughout the county.
“It’s a complete victory,” Ramandeep Singh Mann, an engineer-turned farmers’ rights activist, told The New York Times.
The protests were a drag on the country. Protesters blocked main roads, Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party cut off electricity and water near some of the camps, and government troops erected barbed wire and planted spikes in the streets to keep tractors from rolling into New Delhi.
With more than half of India’s 1.4 billion people employed in agriculture, accounting for 15 percent of the country’s $2.9-trillion economy, the farmers did not back down.
Modi’s initial move to back the laws was seen by supporters as a way to modernize the country’s agriculture and position New Delhi to be in a better position to compete with Beijing. Farmers, in turn, blocked major roads and burned their crops, contending that deregulation will lead to small farms becoming insolvent and eventually taken over by larger rivals.
The laws that were passed in September 2020 essentially deregulated farms from state control and opened the door to new, outside competition.
“They never expected farmers to come out in such large numbers to protest,” Vikram Singh, the joint secretary of the All India Agricultural Workers Union, told The Wall Street Journal in December 2020.
Modi’s decision to repeal the bills was unexpected and farmers are now using the momentum to push for other concessions, like further assurances from New Delhi to back off legal action against protesters and “consider establishing minimum support prices for all produce, not just rice and wheat.”
The government also announced that it will pay compensation to the families of the more than 700 farmers who died during the demonstrations.
Farmers danced in the streets when news broke that the laws were bounced, and removed roadblocks and makeshift homes on major highways.
“Farmers have saved democracy,” said Nagendra Singh, a farmer. “It was a fight for justice.”
TREND-TRACKING LESSON: The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the protests in the country. (See “MODI VS. INDIA’S FARMERS: LOST FREEDOMS FEARED,” “PROTESTERS KILLED IN INDIA: FARMERS FIGHT TO THE FINISH” and “INDIA’S FARMERS KEEP FIGHTING.”)
The success of the farmers’ protests is evidenced in their resolve to peacefully fight for their rights without backing down. As Gerald Celente continues to note, one of the most important elements of protests is to continue with them day after day, night after night, week after week, month after month… however long it takes to win the battle.
Unlike India’s farmers, who work with their hands and are strong and hearty, today’s demonstrators in the Western world take to the streets one day, make a big deal about it, and they go home. For success to be achieved, the resolve to protest must continue until demands are satisfactorily met.
TREND-TRACKING LESSON: Indeed, as with the Indian farmer demonstrations, the Berlin Wall began to fall in 1989 when protests sprang up across eastern Europe opposing Soviet Union control. Then, a month after protests began in East Germany, around half a million people gathered in Alexanderplatz in the heart of East Berlin, refusing to leave until the wall came tumbling down.