Canadians rally for Indian farmers

TORONTO, Canada: Braving near-freezing temperatures and rains, hundreds of people in Canada’s major cities came out during the weekend to demonstrate their solidarity with the protesting farmers in India.

Rallies were organised in Montreal, Toronto and other Canadian cities against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government passing contentious farm bills in September, which farmers say will deregulate the agriculture sector and drastically affect their livelihoods.

“We are out here because the laws are simply unjust. It’s not fair what’s going on there,” Manpreet Singh Pabla, a Toronto-based entrepreneur protesting outside the Indian consulate, told Al Jazeera.

Pabla, whose late grandfather was a farmer and whose family members back home still farm, said the solidarity demonstrations were not about one religious group.

“These [Canadian demonstrations] are not just about Sikhs or Punjabis or religious – they are about all farmers. We are just trying to help protect people’s livelihoods and their way of life.”Sikhs constitute less than two percent of Canada’s population, but the community is one of the most powerful immigrant groups in the country.

The weeks-old farmers’ protests in India have seen mass participation by Sikh farmers, most of them belonging to the northwestern states of Punjab and Haryana.

However, farmers from across India, including the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, have also hit the streets, condemning the

new laws and demanding their repeal.

Amanpreet Singh, president of the Sikh Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar temple in Montreal, said about 1,000 people showed up for a Farmers’ Car Rally he helped organise on Saturday.

“There were at least 300-400 cars that attended the demonstration,” said Singh, adding that he previously worked as a farmer in India.

Jaskaran Sandhu, director of administration at the World Sikh Organization (WSO) of Canada, said for “the majority of Sikhs and Punjabi in the diaspora”, there is still a strong connection to farming back home, with their involvement in the trade going back generations.

“In fact, the connection is so strong [that] many Punjabis and Sikhs who settle abroad, they actually go into agriculture,” Sandhu said, citing examples of Punjabis operating farms in several provinces of Canada.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says the new laws allow the farmers to sell their produce directly to private buyers and will enhance crop production.

But the farmers fear the legislation would eventually cause the government to stop buying grain at guaranteed prices, leaving them open to exploitation by corporations. Moreover, critics say the laws were rammed through the parliament with little to no consultation.