Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), would reverse course on a set of agriculture laws that it had implemented last year in response to a year of protests by Indian farmers.
The laws sought to modernise the Indian agricultural sector by eliminating guaranteed prices for various agricultural products and making it easier for modern investment: reforms broadly in line with the direction of the Indian economy in the last 30 years.
The reforms were strongly opposed by some farmers’ groups who complained that they would now have to sell their products to cooperatives and wouldn’t be able to get the prices they were used to in the past.
According to the Associated Press, whilst addressing the nation Modi said during the address, “While apologising to the nation, I want to say with a sincere and pure heart that maybe something was lacking in our efforts that we could not explain the truth to some of our farmer brothers.” He then went on to say: “Let us make a fresh start.”
The move comes in the lead-up to fiercely contested elections in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, areas in which the protests by farmers were particularly fierce, especially amongst India’s Sikh minority.