Graphic Novel: Seeds of Protest – How Three Farm Laws Sparked a Massive Movement
The tale of farmers' protest, told through an interactive graphic novel.
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One Year of Farmers' Protest: On the first anniversary of the farmers' protest, we look at how the three contentious farm laws led thousands of farmers to march to the streets of Delhi towards the end of November 2020.
On 9 November 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a surprise move, announced that his Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government had decided to "take back all three farm laws."
Addressing the nation on the occasion of Gurpurab, Modi said that although the farm laws were brought in for the good of those who till the soil, his government couldn't make the farmers understand their benefits.
How the Laws Germinated
In June 2020, when India was witnessing its first wave of COVID-19, Modi's government had introduced three ordinances on farm laws.
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 allowed sale of farm produce outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), without tax.
The Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 allowed contract farming.
The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 freed items such as foodgrains, pulses, edible oil, and onions for trade except in crisis situations.
Farmers feared that the optional sale of produce outside the APMC mandis in the private market would gradually make corporates powerful and weaken the APMC system and thereby, the minimum support price (MSP). But the government later assured that the MSP would remain and that the same amount of tax would be applied on sale outside the APMCs.
Farmers also felt that big corporates would bind them into unfavourable contracts that would leave them open to exploitation.
Farmers March to Delhi
In September 2020, the government steamrolled the bills through the parliament, following which they received the president's assent on 27 September 2020.
Following this, farmers from Punjab and Haryana, who had already been holding small, but spread-out protests within their home states, decided to march to Delhi on 26 November 2020.
On the way, they were stopped by the police in Haryana, where they were greeted with water cannons. But the farmers pushed ahead, breaking barricades on their way to Delhi.
Once in Delhi, they were stopped at different borders like Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur where they continue to remain.
Chaos on Republic Day
A section of protesters who made their way to the Red Fort also planted a Nishan Sahib atop an empty pole, generating much controversy. Following this, the pressure on farmers to end the protest only grew, leading farmer leader Rakesh Tikait to break into tears on the national television.
His tears became a turning point in the waning protest and soon the protest gathered much of the steam it had lost following the ruckus on the Republic Day.
Crushed in Lakhimpur Kheri
The onset of the deadly second wave of COVID-19 brought about a period of lull in the farmers' protest, and picked up some pace after farmers protesting at a toll plaza in Karnal were lathi-charged in August.
Following this, on 3 October, three vehicles in Union Minister Ajay Misra’s convoy ploughed through protesters in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, killing four farmers. A local journalist was also killed.
Three BJP workers were allegedly lynched in retaliation. Farmers allege that Minister of State’s son Ashish was in the car that killed farmers. While the Misras denied it, Ashish Misra was arrested six days later.
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