Protesting Indian Farmers Burn Modi in Effigy, Sikh Warriors Deploy with Swords and Shields

"Indian farm protesters burned Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and other officials in effigy as part of “Black Day” – basically a huge tractor rally with black flags fluttering from the farm equipment, intended to keep attention focused on the demonstrators as government troops block them from completing their planned march to New Delhi.

The farmers began their protest march over a week ago, reprising a demonstration that lasted for an entire year in 2021. The previous marchers demanded the repeal of contentious agricultural reforms. The farmers have more demands this time, most importantly including demands for a guaranteed minimum “support price” to be paid by the government for their crops, plus they say the government failed to deliver on some of the promises it made in 2021.
The farmers wound up encircling New Delhi with semi-permanent protest camps last time, so this time the police were determined to stop them before they could reach the city. Violent scuffles broke out between demonstrators and police leaving a dozen officers injured and a 21-year-old protester dead.
The “Delhi Chalo” protest march halted about 125 miles from New Delhi, so the farmers pitched tents, set up community kitchens, brewed up gigantic vats of milk tea, and dug in for the “long haul.”
Mindful of how the protesters used their tractors to smash through flimsy barricades last time, the police constructed walls of concrete blocks and razor wire to hold the farmers at bay, periodically showering them with tear gas when they came too close to the walls...... farm leaders rejected an offer of $120,000 in compensation from the police to the dead man’s family, and said they would hold “Black Day” rallies all along the protest line. Most of the farmers are Sikhs, so they added black cloth to their turbans in addition to hanging black flags on their tractors." Breitbart