NEW DELHI (AP) – Thousands of Protestant Indian farmers blocked highways across the country on Saturday for several hours to voice demands to repeal new agricultural laws that have led to months of massive protests.
Protesters used tractors, trucks and even boulders to block roads. They carried banners and flags that denounced the laws, which they say will leave them poorer and at the mercy of corporations.
“We will continue to fight until our last breath,” said Jhajjan Singh, 80, a farmer at a protest site in Ghazipur. Prime Minister Narendra “Modi should know that either he will stay or we will stay”.
Authorities deployed thousands of security forces mainly outside the Indian capital, where farmers have been camping in three main locations for more than two months. Farmers have said they will not leave until the government repeals the laws.
Saturday’s blockade began at noon and lasted three hours. No violence was reported immediately.
Several rounds of talks between farmers and the government failed to make progress. The government has said the laws are needed to modernize Indian agriculture.
On Friday, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar defended the laws in Parliament, diminishing hopes for a speedy solution, as it made no new offer to resume talks with farmers.
The protests became violent on January 26, Republic Day in India, when a group of farmers riding tractors veered off the protest route and stormed the 17th-century Red Fort.. Hundreds of police officers were injured, as well as dozens of farmers. A protester died.
Farmers’ leaders condemned the violence, but said they would not cancel the protest.
Since then, authorities have greatly increased security at protest sites outside the New Delhi border, adding iron spikes and steel barricades to stop farmers from entering the capital.
Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on authorities and protesters to exercise “maximum restraint.”
“The rights to peaceful assembly and expression should be protected both offline and online. It is crucial to find fair solutions with due respect for #HumanRights for all, “the UN said in a tweet late Friday.