Photos: Farmers stage Bharat Bandh protests across nation

Tuesday’s Bharat Bandh protests against the Centre’s three contentious farm laws are taking place a day before government representatives and farm unions are scheduled to meet for six round of talks.

Bharat Bandh protests against the Centre’s three contentious farm laws are currently underway. The nationwide protests come a day before sixth round of talks between the Centre and farm unions are scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

Farmers close Mullanpur entry side of Chandigarh (HT Photo/Ravi Kumar)

A view of closed shops at Patiala’s Adalat Bazar (HT Photos/Bharat Bhushan)

A policeman on duty at Ludhiana’s Jagraon Bridge (HT Photos/Gurpreet Singh)

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government and states ruled by the party have said they don’t support the bandh, almost all opposition parties and opposition-ruled states have thrown their weight behind the protesting farmers.

Closed shop at Amritsar’s Heritage Street (HT Photos/Sameer Sehgal)

Protesters block Delhi-Meerut expressway at Ghazipur (HT Photos/Karn Singh)

The farmers have been protesting against the three laws since September, the month these were passed. While initially they blocked railway tracks in Punjab, which has been the epicentre of these protests, on November 26 they started marching towards the national capital and arrived on its borders despite stiff resistance from the Haryana police, in what is a BJP-ruled state.

Riot control police in Jaipur (HT Photos/Himanshu Vyas)

Farmers protest outside APMC office in Pune (HT Photos/Rahul Raut)

Since then, the farmers have been staging protests on the outskirts of Delhi while others are camping at Nirankari grounds, the site allotted to them by the Delhi police.

Protests at Patiala’s Anardana Chowk (HT Photos/Bharat Bhushan)

Protests outside Mumbai’s Andheri West station (HT Photos/Vijayanand Gupta)

While the Centre has said it is open to amendments in the three laws and asked for farmers’ feedback, farm unions have demanded a complete repeal of what they have termed as “black laws.” However, according to reports, the government is not in favour of repealing the laws completely.