![\"rapidnews-rapid-news-Thousands-of-Indian-farmers-rally-on-flag-bedecked-tractors-in-Republic-Day-protest-dailyrapidnews\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/rapidnews-rapid-news-Thousands-of-Indian-farmers-rally-on-flag-bedecked-tractors-in-Republic-Day-protest-dailyrapidnews.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIn a high-profile protest against controversial agricultural reforms, tens of thousands of farmers drove a convoy of tractors festooned with brightly-coloured flags through the outskirts of India\u2019s capital of New Delhi on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Growers, angry at what they see as laws that help large, private buyers at the expense of producers, have been camped outside Delhi for almost two months.<\/p>\n
Thousands more, steering tractors bearing the flags of India and farm unions, had streamed in from neighbouring states for several days ahead of the rally, planned to coincide with celebrations of Republic Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur word should travel around the world, that we are fighting for our living,\u201d said Devinder Singh, a 36-year-old farmer from Punjab, seated on his tractor. \u201cIf we lose our farmland, how will we survive?\u201d he asked, as he waited at Singh, one of the main protest sites.<\/p>\n
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The protests have so far been peaceful, and farm leaders have urged rally participants to refrain from violence.<\/p>\n
Authorities used trucks to barricade the main route to the site, where hundreds of police, some armed with assault rifles, tear gas, and a water cannon, stood guard.<\/p>\n
Although some protesters breached police barricades at Singh and Tikri, another site, early on Tuesday, there were no immediate reports of violence.<\/p>\n
Agriculture employs about half of India\u2019s population of 1.3 billion, and unrest among an estimated 150 million landowning farmers presents one of the biggest challenges to the authority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014.<\/p>\n
Nine rounds of talks between the government and the farmers\u2019 unions have failed to end the protests, with farm leaders rejecting the government\u2019s offer to delay the laws for 18 months, as they push for repeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe farm organisations have a very stronghold,\u201d said Ambar Kumar Ghosh, an analyst at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think-tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have the resources to mobilise support and to continue the protest for a long time. They have also been very successful in keeping the protest really focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police have allowed farmers to rally along approved routes on the outskirts of Delhi. But the tractor march threatens to overshadow the annual Republic Day military parade in the centre of the capital on the anniversary of India\u2019s 1950 adoption of its constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey could have chosen any other day instead of January 26 but they have announced now,\u201d Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told media on Monday. \u201cConducting the rally peacefully without any accident would be the concern for farmers as well as police administration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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