NEW DELHI: Dozens of protesting Indian farmers were detained on their way to New Delhi on Wednesday, again delaying their plan to converge on the capital to demand higher crop prices, protest leaders said.
Thousands of farmers, mostly from the northern state of Punjab, launched the “Delhi Chalo” (Let’s Go to Delhi) march last month, demanding higher guaranteed prices for their produce, but were stopped by police about 200 km (125 miles) north of the capital. .
Protest leaders planned to resume the protest on Wednesday and called on farmers across India to head to the capital by bus and train as their tractors were blocked and tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse them.
Farmers began moving towards Delhi but were stopped by police in some states, said a statement from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), or United Farmers Front, one of the two groups leading the protests.
Fifty farmers from one district in the northern state of Rajasthan were arrested on Tuesday night, while another traveling to Delhi by train from the same state was detained at a police station on Wednesday, farmer leaders told reporters.
The Rajasthan police denied arresting any farmers.
“We have not arrested anyone in connection with the farmers’ agitation. There has been no mass movement from here in connection with the protest,” Utkal Ranjan Sahoo, Rajasthan’s police chief, told Reuters.
Farmers from other central and northern states are expected to arrive in Delhi on Thursday, another protest leader Ramandeep Singh Mann said.
Farmer groups from southern and western India also said they were planning to join the protests.
“Farmers remain determined to enter the city. Their determination to fight for their rights has only strengthened in the face of obstacles,” Mann said.
The protests come weeks before a national election in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a rare third term.
A similar but larger protest two years ago, when farmers from multiple groups camped on Delhi’s borders for months, forced Modi to scrap some farm reform laws in his biggest political defeat.
