Crowd gather in Auckland’s Aotea Square to protest against India’s new farm laws

Around 1,500 people from the local Indian community have held a protest in Auckland’s Aotea Square to raise concerns about new farm laws in their home country that they fear could harm farmers there.

In September, three new laws were passed in India to deregulate the agricultural sector by encouraging farmers to sell directly to businesses. This would eliminate the role of the government, which has long been the middle man, and would guarantee minimum prices for crops.

“We want New Zealand to pressure the Indian government to repeal these laws that will force farmers to go even deeper into debt,” said Harpreet Singh, one of the organizers of the protest.

Singh’s father was a farmer and has an uncle who is a farmer, and he says that many Indians who live here will have families who were directly or indirectly involved in farming.

“India is basically an agricultural country, and without government support the safety net for farmers will basically be removed,” he said.

After talks between union representatives and government officials failed last week, the protests spread from the Indian capital New Delhi to other Indian cities and abroad.

Sikhs in the United States joined a motorcade near the Indian consulate in San Francisco, and protests in Canada resulted in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressing solidarity with the protests.

Singh said he hoped Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would follow Trudeau’s lead and increase pressure on India.

New Zealand is home to a large Indian population and the 2018 census reports that nearly 240,000 people identify as part of the Indian ethnic group.