The over a year-long by protests by thousands of farmers, mainly from the agrarian belt of northern India, on the borders of the Delhi ended Thursday after the Modi government succumbed to political pressure and accepted most of the demands of the farmers. The Samyukta Kishan Morcha (SKM), the apex body of 40 farmer trade unions,  called off the sustained protests, which led to over 700 deaths of farmers in one year, mostly from the vagaries of weather.
 
The farm leaders said they were calling off their protests as the government had not only agreed to their main demands of not opening up farm trade to big corporates, but also agreed not to press criminal cases against the farmers. 

The protests began on November 25 last year, when thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab. Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, marched towards the national capital, demanding a complete repeal of three contentious legislations. 

On November 19 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the three contentious laws - which many experts as a move to reform colonial-era farming laws and practices and give marginal farmers more opportunities - would be scrapped. Subsequently, they were repealed in Parliament
 
SKM - which had the backing of opposition parties and represented powerful farming interets that did not want to upset the status quo -said the central government had assured that all cases registered in various states against the farmers during their protest will be taken back very soon.  The government said it has been assured by five states regarding this, and two states have given their consents to provide ex-grata payment to the families of the farmers who died during the yearlong protests. .

SKM said it was a victory of farmers who have been protesting for the last one year to get their demands fulfilled. Soon after the announcement of the end the protest, the protesting farmers started uprooting their tents and have started going back to their villages, UNI news agency said. 

SKM leaders said that it will review the situation from time to time to ascertain whether the government has fulfilled the farmers’ demands or not (SAM)