Liberal Democracies and Farmers’ Protest

On 7 March 2021, the farmers’ protest in India surpassed the 101-day mark, making it the largest general strike in world history with 250 million participants, and the longest sit-in in modern Indian history, exceeding the 2019 Shaheen Bagh protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have responded by becoming increasingly anti-democratic. They remain entrenched in their vision of a Hindu nation wedded to free-market capitalism. The outcome is devastating. Minorities are politically, economically, and socially excluded from the nation while the political and civil rights of all citizens are eroded.