(30 Jan 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4308604
Indian farmers and their leaders spearheading more than two months of protests against new agriculture laws began a daylong hunger strike Saturday, directing their fury toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.
Crowds of demonstrating farmers could be seen blocking a highway in New Delhi as one recited a poem on stage.
Farmers' leaders said the hunger strike, which coincides with the death anniversary of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, would reaffirm the peaceful nature of the protests.
Farmers are demanding the withdrawal of laws passed by Parliament last September.
They say the legislature will favor large corporations, devastate the earnings of many farmers and leave those with small plots behind.
Sukhdev Singh, one of the hunger-striking protest leaders, said the farmers wouldn't go home unless the laws were repealed.
"If we don't have anything, then it's better to die here than at home," he said.
The long-running protests have largely been peaceful but violence erupted on Tuesday, India's Republic Day, when tens of thousands of farmers riding tractors and on foot stormed the 17th century Red Fort in a brief but shocking takeover.
Clashes between the protesters and government forces left one protester dead and nearly 400 police officers injured.
Modi and his leaders have described the laws as necessary to modernize Indian agriculture.
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