Indian farmers blockade highways nationwide to protest farm laws

Tens of thousands of protesting farmers in India held a three-hour blockade of state and national highways on Saturday as part of their agitation against a set of contentious farm laws they want repealed.

Highways were blocked in several places in the states of Haryana and Punjab, and demonstrations were also held in Jammu and Kashmir, Bangalore and Pune, the NDTV news agency reported. A farmers union leader said road blockades were being held at 33 places.

"We will block vehicles for three hours in a symbolic gesture," said Rakesh Tikait, a farmers' leader. "We will give stranded people water, food, milk and explain to them why we are protesting."

Television footage from the city of Kurukshetra showed truck drivers and other vehicle owners being served food by protesters blocking the road while sitting on the highway.

Saturday's protests went peacefully, with some detentions reported from Haryana and Bangalore. Rallies were held by opposition parties in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra to show support for the farmers.

Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been parked for more than two months at sites on the borders of the Indian capital, where they were stopped by police at the end of November when they tried to carry their agitation to the doorstep of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Most of them came from the nearby states of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The protesting farmers say the new laws that ease rules regarding storage, marketing and sale of produce will leave them vulnerable to big corporations and the vagaries of the free market. They want them repealed.

The Modi government says these laws will modernize and energize the farming sector, on which more than 50 per cent of India's population depends for a living.

Several rounds of talks between the farmers and government have failed to break the impasse.

The protests overall have been largely peaceful, except for a bout of violence and vandalism by a group of protesters who broke barricades and entered the capital on January 26, India’s Republic Day. Scores of policemen were injured in clashes with the protesters.

Local authorities have since then fortified barricades with concertina wire, planted nails and dug trenches on roads leading to major protest sites. They also disconnected electricity supplies and suspended internet services, according to farmers' unions.

These moves have been criticized by celebrities, opposition party lawmakers in India and the US State Department among others.

"They will plant nails, we will plant crops," Tikait told protesters after the day's protest programme. "Bring soil from your farms to plant saplings between the nails here."

Tikait, who is the leader of a farmers union with large following in Uttar Pradesh, said the agitation would continue till the three laws are taken back. "We will be here till October 2 ... we won't go home till our demands are met. Please come here in shifts from your villages so that crops can be harvested."

The Indian capital was placed on a high alert on Saturday, with authorities closing 10 metro stations until the blockade call ended, as well as deploying additional police at protest sites.

The farmers leaders had said they would not be putting up blockades in Delhi, and there were no incidents.

Police said internet services would remain suspended till midnight at protest sites to maintain people's safety and avert a public emergency.