Canada-based man mulling prolonging stay in India to take part in farmers' protest

With the protesting farmers remaining steadfast in their demands, a Canada-based man, who arrived in India a week ago, is mulling the idea of prolonging his stay here as he feels the need to participate in the agitation. Gurbaksh Singh, who has been a businessman in Toronto for the last 30 years, said he came to India last week to be part of the agitation demanding the revocation of three new farm laws that "threaten the land ownership" of thousands of farmer families, including his.

"Although I have my return tickets booked for next week, after seeing all this, I am thinking if I should prolong my stay here," Singh, who is originally from Punjab's Nawa Shahr village, said.

While he is putting up at his ancestral home in Nawa Shahr, Singh has been visiting the Singhu border protest site of the farmers every couple of days.


He said he felt the need to participate in the protest not just because he hails from a farmer family, but also because what is happening is an "injustice to the most important citizens of the country, that is the farmers".

Several rounds of talks between the government and the farmers have resulted in a stalemate.

Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow the farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

While the protesting farmers have expressed the apprehension that the new laws would lead to the eventual elimination of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations, the government has been asserting that the MSP and the "mandi" (wholesale market) systems will stay, accusing the opposition of misleading them.