New Delhi. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second prime minister of India, used the slogan  “Jai Jawaan Jai Kisaan” (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer) for the first time at Ramlila Maidan in Delh in 1965. It showed his high regard for the soldiers and the farmers.

India was at war with Pakistan during that time and suffered from food scarcity too. There was no denying the importance of the army and the farmers at that time and both eventually made the country proud.

India is facing the same situation in 2020. It has had border skirmishes with its archrival China and the tension has not eased yet. The COVID-19 pandemic, on the other hand, has been demanding more efforts in the economic sector, including agriculture. India’s “Jawans” are with the government defending the borders but Indian “Kisaans”are protesting in the streets of the same Delhi where Shastri had hailed the farmers once.

Thousands of farmers have been demonstrating outside the Indian capital, New Delhi, for more than a week now, against new farming laws enacted by the Modi government.

Farmers believe that the controversial law adopted by the government would lead to the scrapping of the minimum support price (MSP) – the price at which the government buys farm produce –and the farmers would be left at the mercy of corporate dealers.

Farmers have thronged the capital city arriving there from different states, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, marching for more than a week on their tractors and trucks. They want to put pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to withdraw the laws passed in September.

Al Jazeera reports: “At night, the farmers sleep in trailers and under trucks, curling themselves in blankets to brave the winter chill. During the day, they sit huddled in groups in their vehicles, surrounded by mounds of rice, lentils and vegetables that are prepared into meals at hundreds of makeshift soup kitchens, in enormous pots stirred with wooden spoons the size of canoe paddles.”

Modi and his allies have defended the controversial laws and accused opposition parties of misleading the farmers. His government says the new laws will bring much-needed private investment to the crisis-hit agricultural sector.

The farmers have always resented that the government never listened to their woes and now what the government claims to be a reform in the agriculture sector, the farmers take it as something pushed down their throat, without being consulted once. The government was not there when they asked for better crop prices, additional loan waivers and proper irrigation systems, they say.

The growing farmer rebellion has disturbed Modi’s administration as the farmers’ agitation has gained widespread support of ordinary citizens. They have started joining them in large numbers, showing their solidarity.

The government is holding talks with the farmers to persuade them to end their protests, but they have failed so far and with each passing day, the farmers’ complaint now seems gradually shifting from the new  agriculture policy to the attitude and overall federal policy of PM Modi.

“India is in a recession. There are hardly any jobs and our country’s secular fabric is in tatters,” said Gurpreet Singh, 26, a biotechnology student who comes from a farming family. He tells Al Jazeera, “At a time when India needs a healing touch, Modi is coming up with divisive, controversial laws. This is unacceptable and defies our constitutional values.”

Meanwhile, the farmers protest has garnered support from another corner of the world and that also from the head of a government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking at an online event to mark the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, earlier this week, said that he was much concerned about the news of the farmers’ protest coming from India and that Canada would always support and defend the rights of peaceful protest.

India has registered a complaint against comments by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the Canadian High Commissioner. According to a statement issued on Friday by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), “Comments by the Canadian Prime Minister… on issues relating to Indian farmers constitute an unacceptable interference in our internal affairs.”

The Modi government seems agitated, indeed.