NEW DELHI (CU)_More than 100,000 farmers gathered in India’s northern Punjab state on Sunday (Feb 21), in protest against the new agriculture reform laws, which the they say will devastate their income and make them vulnerable to corporate greed.
As tens of thousands of demonstrators continue to camp outside the capital city of Delhi, braving the cold and rain for nearly three months, union leaders have called on supporters to amass outside the city on February 27.
Although these farmers have met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which introduced the laws last September, however, there has been hardly any progress in negotiations between the parties. The Indian government has offered to delay the legislation but has refused to abandon it, while the farmers’ unions have vowed to carry on the protests until the laws are rolled back.
During a rally at a grain market in a town in Punjab on Sunday, union leaders gave a rundown of their plans to gather tens of thousands of farmers from the northern state and move to the protests outside of Delhi later this month.
“We came here to make Punjab’s farmers aware of the movement in Delhi. We came to tell them what’s happening there and what will happen next,” one such union leader, Joginder Ugrahan, said.
Early on Sunday, a sea of demonstrators, including women, began gathering at the grain market, riding on tractors, trailers, buses and cars. According to the local police, a crowd between 120,000 to 130,000 had gathered in what was considered to be one of the largest rallies against the laws.
