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Politics

Politics loom behind scrapping of India's farm laws

Analysts see crucial state polls as main reason for rare U-turn by Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the star campaigner of his Bharatiya Janata Party, has given his government something to campaign on ahead of crucial polls in Uttar Pradesh. (Source photo by Reuters)

NEW DELHI -- Nishant Dubey, a 23-year-old farmer from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is among the thousands of protesters who this week left the borders of the Indian capital, where they had been encamped for a year to oppose three contentious laws brought in by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"I am leaving happily, as some of our key demands have been met," Dubey told Nikkei Asia, referring to the Indian parliament's Nov. 29 decision to scrap the farm laws. The government says the legislation was aimed at liberalizing the agriculture sector, but small farmers felt the laws benefited only big companies and threatened their livelihoods.

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