[nervous_ring]

For the Western audience, tl;dr is that these reforms will allow free market to decide the price. This has made a lot of people very mad who had their own monopoly. Farmers do have legitimate concerns about predatory pricing by private institutions but as a whole, the agriculture employs 45% of the country's population and contributes a measly 14% or so to the economy. There's a big problem of hidden unemployment in India and farmers almost always get the bottom end of the stick.

BJP (the current ruling party) has a history of having good ideas but implementing them in the worst and most authoritarian manner possible. But these will be passed if the past is any indication.

Edit: I wonder precisely which inaccuracy tipped off some people.

[kevingadd]

According to the article there are many other objections/demands and this is not just about free market pricing:

Some of the key demands contained in the 12-point charter put forward by the organizers include withdrawal of a series of laws recently passed by the Modi government repealing key labor and farm price protections, a rollback in the recent disinvestment policies in major government-owned enterprises, implementation of existing welfare schemes for rural workers, and expanding welfare policies to aid the masses affected by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Privatization of government-owned enterprises sounds like a potential red flag just by itself if they're key services like the power grid or a health system (just hypothetical, since it's not clear which services are in question). Repealing labor protections is potentially very bad. A lack of aid for masses impacted by the COVID pandemic by itself is already justification for a strike by itself if the government is ignoring the needs of the people.

[nervous_ring]

India is a mess precisely because of the never ending virtue signalling and good-on-paper rules.

We always have the most protectionist rules and then we wonder why industry isn't growing. Welfare schemes don't work, period. 99% money ends up in a politician's bank. Disinvestment is a necessity. Government-owned institutions provide sub-par service and are a huge money drain of taxpayer money. I live in a tier 2 city and get daily power cuts for hours. And then the "public servants" have the gall to screw up the power transformer for 30 hours after making thousands of millions of loss. Not acceptable anymore.

Idk the populist government is finally bringing on some unpopular policies to reduce tax wastage and the detractors are up in arms. Timing is horrible, I'll give you that.

[FuckButtons]

You mean like the time they tried to go to a cashless economy without any real alternative for the majority of the population?

The main thing the bjp has as far as I can see is a violent hatred of Muslims, which in a country with the largest population of Muslims in the world is not going to end well.

[nervous_ring]

We did get a strong online payment system because of it. It is bearing fruits, just not as well as we'd hoped. And yes, I'm aware of the problems it caused too.

Look, I'm a strong liberal but it's hard not to dislike the Muslims if you were born before 2000 (which most of the BJP brass is). Muslims just don't assimilate well. And not their fault to a large degree, but actively protesting against raising the marriage age, triple talaq and faulting the French government in the latest bombing. They have lots of countries to do this, I don't want India becoming any more polarized or extremist. Every side is playing this politics, BJP is just doing it successfully.

[georgeplusplus]

Thanks for elaborating, the article doesn’t really explain exactly what measures the Indian government did to inflame such a protest but between the communist flags the protestors hold, and what groups comprises the bulk of protestors I had an idea.

[nervous_ring]

A)Funded by opposition and foreign players. Always a presence whenever civil unrest is involved. B)India has a love-hate relationship with communism. We are a poor country because of it, but poverty pushes more people to communism. C)Whenever you see an article about India, don't put it in white or black. With a country of about 1.5 billion, nothing is black or white, ever.

[oliTwist23]

Very well put.