-The Telegraph Mumbai: The blistered foot rattled India's financial capital so badly that it had to sit up and engage with those it had been taking for granted for so long. The BJP-led government in Maharashtra has "accepted" the demands of farmers hours after 35,000 of them, many barefooted, marched on Mumbai, braving the blazing sun for nearly a week and walking 180km. The farmers then decided to end their agitation. The key...

-News18.com When over 50,000 farmers in Maharashtra marched towards Mumbai with similar demands on Sunday, they followed Vijoo Krishnan, a man hailing from a small hamlet in Kerala's Kannur, which has turned out to be a great source of inspiration to the millions of Communists in the state. On December 20, 1946, in Karivelloor, a small village in the northern part of Kerala — then called Malabar, which was a part of...

-Newsclick.in An explosive farming crisis and sustained protests over the past two years have converged in the historic march by 50,000 farmers to Mumbai. Over the past six days, India has slowly woken up to farmers’ distress – and their resistance. On 6 March, about 20,000 farmers from various parts of the state mobilized by the CPI (M) affiliated All India Kisan Sabha gathered at Nashik in north-western Maharashtra to begin a...

-The Indian Express It is morally obtuse and analytically misleading to see farmers’ long march as a demand for handouts The “long march of the farmers” in Maharashtra refocused attention on the crisis in certain regions in Indian agriculture. It should be the headline news that jolts the nation out of a complacent stupor. The protest made a series of long-standing but familiar demands: Loan waivers, increase in MSP, implementation of Forest...

-The Indian Express M S Swaminathan, author of the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) which is better known as his panel, does not see farm loan waiver as a solution to challenges being faced by farmers. From Mandsaur to Mumbai, farmer agitations have repeatedly invoked recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission to press their demands, including waiver of loans. Political leadership across states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab...