When India's powerful Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed in 2021 to repeal three farm laws aimed at overhauling the antiquated agriculture sector, he seemed to have won over farmers who had been protesting for over 12 months.
But just over two years later, farmers are on the warpath again in the politically sensitive north of the world's most populous nation, seeking legal guarantees for a minimum purchase price for all crops. The protest comes just months before a general election due by May.
Although the farmers' protest is confined to the breadbasket state of Punjab for now, their complaints of falling incomes resonate more widely, highlighting a perception in India's huge rural hinterland that Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have done too little to support the farming community and raise living standards.
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