NEW DELHI: Indian farmer unions have scrapped next week’s planned march on parliament against new agricultural laws, as rifts emerge after violent protests in New Delhi left one person dead and almost 400 police injured.
Thousands of farmers running riot on tractors on Tuesday was a major embarrassment for the government, but also for the 42 unions representing the farmers, who have mostly condemned the violence.
Late Wednesday their main umbrella group said that the planned march on parliament on February 1 — when the government presents the budget — had been pushed back, although nationwide rallies were still planned on Sunday.
Farmers have been camped outside New Delhi for two months demanding that the new laws be scrapped, because they fear they will leave them at the mercy of big corporations. Two roads blocked by the protestors for weeks were cleared late Wednesday as two unions withdrew from the protest, each blaming other groups for events. “I am so ashamed and sad about (Tuesday) that I announce an end to our 58-day-long sit-in protest at this (Delhi) border,” one union leader, Bhanu Pratap Singh, announced on Wednesday.
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