Over 300,000 farmers on Thursday blocked the passage of trains to reject pro-corporate laws pushed by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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"The protest took place at a thousand stations in 20 out of 36 territories," said Avik Saha, the secretary of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), the country's largest platform of farmers and farmworkers organizations.
"Even if the government denies the existence of our protest, we are still here," he stressed and recalled that the Modi administration does not seek dialogue but to discredit the farmers' movement.
"The government portrays itself as 'reasonable' and describes the farmers as 'unreasonable'. Basically, it is trying to insinuate that we are not united in an attempt to justify the absence of negotiations."
For months, Indian farmers have been steadily protesting against neoliberal reforms that put them at a disadvantage against big businesses.
Besides eliminating minimum support prices that the state provided to farmers, Modi's laws aim to make them sell their crops directly to private agents who control the distribution chains.
At a press conference with international outlets, however, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said minimum prices will continue to apply to 22 crops.
"If market prices are not above a certain level, the minimum price will be maintained," she vowed.