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Indian Prime Minister Modi repeals controversial farm law after more than a year of protests

“Today I come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to withdraw all three agricultural laws,” Modi said in a speech to the nation, adding that the process would be completed. all in a congressional session later this month.

Modi acknowledges the importance of farmers and the challenges they face. He said it was a priority issue for his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“In this grand campaign to improve the conditions of farmers, three agricultural laws have been introduced in the country,” said Modi.

“This law was made with good intentions,” he continued, adding that despite its efforts, the government could not “make them (farmers) understand the importance of the agricultural law.”

Jai Kisan Andolan farmers group’s national vice president, Deepak Lamba, said Modi’s announcement “could be seen as a huge win for farmers”, but added that the government had repealed the laws because “political coercion”.

“The government has taken this step, keeping in mind the upcoming (state) elections,” he said.

In India, agriculture is a central political issue, and the protests have posed a unique challenge to the BJP.

India’s seven states will hold elections early next year to determine if Modi’s BJP can stay in power. His ruling party currently governs six of the seven states, including the predominantly agricultural Uttar Pradesh.

Farmers are the largest voting bloc in the country and the agricultural sector maintains about 58% of India’s 1.3 billion citizens. Angry farmers could see Modi lose a sizable number of votes.

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Modi’s announcement came on Gur Purab day, the birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak. Sikhism is the dominant religion in the northern state of Punjab, run by the opposition Congress Party and considered India’s breadbasket for the country’s major agricultural force.

However, some farmer groups vowed to maintain the pressure.

“The protests will not be withdrawn immediately,” Union Farmers of India leader Rakesh Tikait wrote on Twitter.

“We will wait for the day the agricultural laws are repealed in Congress.”

Farmers group Samyukt Kisan Morcha welcomed the repeal of what it described as an “anti-farmer, pro-black business law,” in a statement Friday, but said it would also wait for the announcement to go into effect. force in Parliament.

“If this happens, it will be a historic victory of the year-long struggle of farmers in India,” the group said.

Farmers participate in a demonstration against the central government's agricultural reforms in Amritsar on April 18, 2021.

For more than a year, Indian farmers have struggled with three laws, which they say allow them to be exploited by large corporations and possibly destroy their livelihoods. The laws, passed last September, loosened the rules around the sale and pricing of products that had protected farmers from the unregulated free market for decades.

Under previous laws, farmers had to auction their goods at their state’s Agricultural Market Commission, where they were guaranteed to receive at least the minimum price agreed to by the government. There are restrictions on who can buy and prices are limited for essential items.

New laws eliminated this structure, allowing farmers to sell their goods to anyone for any price instead. The government says reforms are needed to modernize the country’s agricultural sector, but many farmers think they will allow large corporations to lower prices.

In mid-January, India’s Supreme Court temporarily suspended the statutes. But Modi has failed to quell the protests, with some farmers vowing not to leave until the law is completely repealed.

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