SHAMBHU: Indian farmers demanding higher prices for their produce suspended a protest on Wednesday after the government made a fresh offer to resume talks, hours after police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of people marching in Delhi.
The farmers, mostly from the northern state of Punjab, are demanding higher prices for their crops backed by law. They form an influential bloc of voters Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot afford to get angry ahead of the general elections due in May.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters they would suspend their protest for two days and discuss the next course of action until Friday after the government again offered to resume talks on farmers’ demand for guaranteed crop prices.
“The government is ready to discuss all issues,” Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda said on social media X.
“I again invite the farmers’ leaders for a discussion. It’s important for us to keep the peace.”
Earlier Wednesday, protesters – some wearing medical masks – ran into fields near their rally on a highway about 200 km (125 miles) north of Delhi after police fired tear gas.
Pandher claimed that one protester was killed and three injured at another protest site 100 km away, but police in Haryana state denied this.
Video clips in local media showed police using water cannons and farmers aiming water hoses at the site.
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On Monday, farm groups rejected a previous government proposal for five-year contracts and guaranteed support prices for products such as maize, cotton and pulses.
BLOCKED HIGHWAYS
Accompanied by cranes and excavators, the farmers began marching at 05:30 GMT from a point on a key road where authorities had set up barricades on the border of Punjab state with Haryana.
“It is not right that such massive barricades have been put up to stop us,” said one of the farmers’ leaders, Jagjit Singh Dallewal. “We want to march to Delhi peacefully. If not, they should accede to our demands.”
Police officers lined the highway while farmers waved colorful flags emblazoned with their union symbols.
Late on Tuesday, the Haryana police chief ordered the immediate seizure of heavy equipment brought by farmers to prevent protesters from using it to destroy barricades.
About 10,000 people gathered along with 1,200 tractors and wagons at Shambhu on the state border on Wednesday, Haryana police said on X.
Security has been beefed up at entry points into New Delhi, restricting traffic into the city of more than 20 million people. Two key entry points north of the city were closed for several days and traffic was diverted.
An earlier government proposal for minimum support prices for farmers diversifying their crops into cotton, pigeon pea, black matpe, red lentils and maize was rejected by protesters who wanted other food grains covered.
Similar protests two years ago, when farmers camped for months on the New Delhi border, forced the Modi government to scrap a number of farm laws.
