India’s Farmers Come out in Force Against Modi. Farmer vs Modi ji .

Cartoonist @Rajkumarrr_comics

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Barnala, Punjab, INDIA—Dozens of colorful turbans dot the road where men from various villages and towns have come together to demand farmers’ rights. At this gathering, on Oct. 2 in the Punjab state of northern India, Sumandeep Kaur is the only one without a turban. She is a 20-year-old journalism student, and she has come with her father, who is a farmer.

Wearing a green shirt and white trousers, she squints her eyes at her father, Kewal Singh, who is addressing the farmers as they block a toll plaza on a highway. They are protesting three new laws, all passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government on Sept 20.

The first, The Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, claims to “empower farmers for engaging with processors, wholesalers, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers, exporters etc., on a level playing field.” It promises “price assurance to farmers even before sowing of crops.” The second, The Essential Commodities Act (Amendment) Bill, aims to “drive up investment in cold storages and modernization of the food supply chain” and creates a “competitive market environment and also prevents wastage of agri-produce that happens due to lack of storage facilities.” And the third, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, is notionally meant to “act as a catalyst to attract private sector investment for building supply chains for supply of Indian farm produce to national and global markets, and in agricultural infrastructure.”

The government has claimed that its new laws will streamline farming in India and will transform the agriculture sector through increased private investment. Many activists, though, believe that measures will help a few corporations while leading to unemployment and growing debt for smaller scale farmers. Farmers also believe that many could lose land if they are forced to sell their property to corporates, which will directly deal with production and marketing of goods.

In a tweet, Modi responded to such criticism by saying: “For decades, the Indian farmer was bound by various constraints and bullied by middlemen. The bills passed by Parliament liberate the farmers from such adversities.”

What happens to India’s farmers is no small matter. The agriculture sector employs half of India’s 1.35 billion people and contributes nearly 15 percent of India’s $2.7 trillion economy. Given growing debt, poor harvests, and draught, in 2019, 28 people who depend on farming died by suicide every day. If the protesters are right about the effects of the new law, that figure could climb. That is why Kaur, who was five years old when she attended her first farmers’ protest with her father, came out that Friday.