Why Indian farmers fear the new Indo-US deal
As India and the United States move toward implementing a tenuous trade agreement, the Modi government is once again confronting an old political fault line: farmers. Nowhere is this tension sharper than in Punjab, though protests have now spread beyond the state into Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, where memories of the massive 2020-21 farm protests remain raw and politically consequential. Those protests forced Prime Minister Modi to repeal three controversial farm laws that were widely seen as a backdoor to agricultural liberalisation without adequate safeguards. The current trade negotiations have already begun reopening those wounds, with farmer groups staging demonstrations and strikes. At the heart of farmers' anxieties is a familiar fear: exposure to global markets without adequate state protection creates immense wealth for some, while simultaneously deepening existing inequalities and hardships for vulnerable populations. Liberalisation in Indian agriculture over the p...