Indian farmers end yearlong protest against reforms

Protesting farmers will bring their yearlong mass protest against the controversial agricultural reforms introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last year to an end, union leaders said on Thursday.

The decision follows a U-turn by the government that repealed three laws that had been the main targets of the protest movement.

The farmers, who have been holding a sit-in around Delhi since November last year, will celebrate their victory with a march on December 11 after which they will return home, the Times of India newspaper reported.

Union leaders said they will meet again on January 15 to review the new concessions pledged by the central government.

What did the government concede?

Alongside the rare reversal by the right-wing government that had claimed the reforms would ease regulation of the agricultural market — but which protesters said threatened the livelihoods of small-scale farmers — Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also conceded on a number of other demands.

The government wrote a letter to the protesters vowing to withdraw all legal cases against protesting farmers, to form a committee to look into setting minimal prices for agricultural goods and to offer compensation to the families of protesters who lost their lives over the past year.

While many of the farmers had already headed home, several thousand remained to push for further concessions.

Why did the government agree to concessions?

Farmers constitute a particularly influential voting bloc in India, where over 50% of the population is reliant on agriculture to make a living. Farming accounts for about 15% of the nation's $2.7 trillion (€2.27 trillion) economy and over two-thirds of farmers in the country own less than 1 hectare (2 1/2 acres) of land.

The turnaround by the Hindu-nationalist BJP comes ahead of regional elections in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, home to many of India's farmers, where the party is looking to strengthen its electoral support.

The shift of focus from the agricultural reforms to further demands on minimum pricing for all crops had also seen the protests gain support beyond the traditional grain-growing states.

ab/sms (Reuters, AFP)