[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.