For approximately a year, the Indian premier Modi has defended a law that liberalized the sale of agricultural products in the fields. The more recent news, as reported by Ansa and The Guardian (with the original source and most reliable source being Al Jazeera), is that the long protest of growers was successful and that the provision has been withdrawn.
However, what no press agency stressed enough, almost as if it were normal, is that almost 700 growers died during this year-long protest. The media often talk about a penguin that died in Antarctica or a centuries-old tree burned down in Sierra Leone, but was there any news about the death of 700 growers who only wanted some sort of income?
Why have these protests ended in bloodshed? The government launched a law package to liberalize sales but, according to growers, this worsened their situation. It must be considered, in fact, that the average income of an Indian producer is already at the lower limit of the poverty threshold.
"Growers, mainly in the 'grain bowl' states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, rejected the laws, saying they would lead to a corporate acquisition of the agricultural sector, denying them of the minimum support price (MSP) for their products as guaranteed by the government," reports Al Jazeera.
Grower organizations stressed that they will not interrupt the protests until the MSP will become a law. "We owe it to the 700 growers who have lost their lives during the battle."
There is a lot of talk about unfair laws and a minimum income for agricultural products in Italy too, but nobody protests, not even peacefully. It would be unthinkable, and luckily it does not happen, for someone to lose their life, but the testimony of Indian producers proves that, if you want to obtain anything, you need to fight. And, when you are hungry, you are prepared to risk your life.
Let us remember these 700 victims, growers who sacrifices themselves to survive.