After more than a year of non-stop protests on the streets, through extreme weather and violence, farmers won a victory of sorts when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the controversial farm laws would be withdrawn.
The farmers have continued to protest, because there is a ‘trust deficit’ with the government, says Harinder Happy, media coordinator of the agitation. “All police cases against farmers must be withdrawn,” he told Sidharth Bhatia in a podcast interview.
Happy, the son of Dalit landless farmers, was enrolled as a PhD candidate in agrarian sociology but his admission was cancelled because he could not attend university due to his participation in the movement.
With academic rigour and ground experience, he explains the situation among farmers and says that small farmers would be hit much more than the big ones, which is contrary to the general impression that has been created.
