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Indian farmers in no mood to forgive despite Modi's U-turn on reforms
CGTN
People take to the streets to celebrate and congratulate farmers on the retraction of farm laws against which they have been protesting for almost a year, in Kolkata, India, November 19, 2021. /CFP

People take to the streets to celebrate and congratulate farmers on the retraction of farm laws against which they have been protesting for almost a year, in Kolkata, India, November 19, 2021. /CFP

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have caved in to farmers' demands that he scrap laws they say threaten their livelihoods. But reactions to the shocking U-turn in India's rural north, where Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces key elections next year, have been less than positive, a worrying sign for a leader seeking to maintain his grip on national politics.

In the village of Mohraniya, about 500 kilometers by road east of the capital New Delhi and located in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, farmer Guru Sevak Singh said that he and others like him lost faith in Modi and his party.

"Today Prime Minister Modi realized that he was committing blunder, but it took him a year to recognize this and only because he now knows farmers will not vote for his party ever again," said Singh.

Thousands of agricultural workers have protested outside New Delhi and beyond for more than a year, shrugging off the pandemic to disrupt traffic and pile pressure on Modi and the BJP who say the new laws were key to modernizing the sector.

Indian farmers celebrate after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repeal of the three farm laws, at Ghazipur Border in New Delhi, India, November 19, 2021. /CFP

Indian farmers celebrate after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repeal of the three farm laws, at Ghazipur Border in New Delhi, India, November 19, 2021. /CFP

In 2020, Modi's government passed three farm laws in a bid to overhaul the agricultural sector that employs about 60 percent of India's workforce but is deeply inefficient, in debt and prone to pricing wars.

Angry farmers took to the streets, saying the reforms put their jobs at risk and handed control over crops and prices to private corporations.

The resulting protest movement became one of the country's biggest and most protracted.

Leaders of six farmer unions who spearheaded the movement in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab states said they would not forgive a government that labelled protesting farmers as terrorists and anti-nationals.

Leaders of the opposition and some analysts said Modi's final U-turn was linked to state elections next year in Uttar Pradesh – which accounts for more parliamentary seats than any other state – and Punjab.

But farmers like Singh warned that the government could pay a price for its treatment of farmers. "We are the backbone of the country and Modi has today accepted that his policies were against farmers," said Singh.

(With input from Reuters)

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