United Nations, December 5
Farmers in India have the right to demonstrate peacefully and the authorities should allow it, according to Secretary General Antonio Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“We want people to have a voice in their lives,” Dujarric said in his daily briefing on Friday when a journalist asked about ongoing farmers’ protests against the agricultural reform laws introduced by the Indian government.
“What I would tell you is that what I have said to others in raising these issues is that people have the right to demonstrate peacefully and the authorities must allow them to do so.”
The spokesman’s remarks came as farmers have sat in protest for the past nine days on the Delhi-Haryana and Delhi-Uttar Pradesh borders.
Agitated farmers are demanding the repeal of the three farm laws passed by Parliament earlier this year and have expressed apprehension that they would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of large corporations.
The government has argued that the new laws will provide farmers with better opportunities. He has also accused opposition parties of misleading farmers.
IANS
