Thousands of Indian Farmers from 184 organisations stage protest in New Delhi against PM Modi
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NEW DELHI - Thousands of farmers protested in India’s capital, demanding better prices for their crops and relief from high debts, underscoring the challenges Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces before elections in his home turf Gujarat next month and nationally in 2019.
Representatives from 184 farmer organizations squatted on a road leading to the parliament building in the heart of New Delhi, demanding a nationwide waiver of crop loans on the lines announced by some states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, higher prices for their produce and lowering seeds and fertilizer costs.
The protest is the latest challenge for Modi who promised to double farm incomes by 2022 and ensure a 50 percent profit over the cost of production. The number of farmers committing suicides climbed about 42 percent to 8,007 in 2015 from a year earlier, according to a farm ministry statement in parliament in February.
Bloomberg Politics