Next. Police in Delhi have banned all public gatherings ahead of a threatened march on India's capital on Tuesday by thousands of protesting farmers. It's happening in the run-up to the national elections in which millions of farmers form a powerful voting block. While security forces have been deployed, concrete barricades are erected on the roads into Delhi from neighboring states, members of more than 200 farming unions are planning to converge on the capital, demanding greater protections, including guaranteed minimum crop prices, agreed by Narendra Modi's government after another protest back in 2021. Let's get more now from Nitin Srivastava, BBC India correspondent in Delhi.

India's capital is preparing again. Preparing again for a massive farmer's protest, which might start from the 13th of February. This happened only two years back, when hundreds and thousands of farmers had laid siege to borders in Delhi. Bordering states of Punj, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana were sealed. Traffic was disrupted. The farmers were demanding repeal of farm laws passed by the government in 2020. Now, they plan to start protesting again from the 13th of February, asking what they left back then. And the demands are same. The farmers want the government to guarantee a minimum support price for their annual yield of They also want pensions to their farmers, and 200 unions across the country also want better working conditions in the farms and better promotion of their crops in terms of foreign imports and exports. What's important to be remembered is the fact that after almost a year-long agitation, the government had repealed the laws back in 2021, after India's top quote had intervened. But the Farmers say nothing much has changed, and the government is still not serious, while the government says it is going to be in negotiations with the farmer to avoid a confrontation.

Meanwhile, the capital, Delhi, has banned all processions. Weddings and funerals will need special permission for the government for at least one month. Traffic advisories have been issued. While the government and the administration is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that huge numbers of farmers do not manage to reach the protesting sites which has been earmarked in case the negotiations that talk with the government fail, the farmers are really adamant. Now, citizens of Delhi and the joining areas are really, really bothered as to what the next month is going to be for them like if that happens again. Nathan Srivastar, BBC News, Delhi.

All right, let's get more from Natash Bihal, an Associate Professor at Arizona State University. Thank you very much for coming on the program.

Thank you for having me.

Just how significant is this if we do see large numbers of farmers on the streets again?

This is very significant. What it is, is in many ways, a continuation of the farmers' protests in 2020, when we saw sit-ins of about 300,000 supporters on the outskirts of Dili who were agitating to repeal the farm laws. And successfully repealed them. This is one of the few movements that has really brought pressure to bear on the BJP and has gotten them to repeal the law.

Well, on that, just explain to us what is the significance running up to an election.

What the BJP would say to you is that the BJP continues to characterize India as the world's largest democracy. While protesting, farmers would actually point to the fact that the BJP has systematically eroded the rights of citizens, including protesters themselves. And so the BJP is currently erecting, with the help of militarized police forces, they're currently erecting concrete walls and barriers so that protesters cannot move into Dili. They cannot engage in their action into Dili. They've also shut down internet in some places in Haryana as a way to limit information flows. So these are just two ways in which you see that the BJP is demonstrating this stripping down of democratic rights.

Okay, well, given that... Sorry to jump in just there, but given that as the backdrop, what do you think the chances are that the farmers get what they want here?

The farmers, I think, are actually demonstrating how social movements can challenge these illiberal moments in democracies and how they can push back on powerful governments. They were successful once, and there's some likelihood that they will be successful in in that continuation of demands of what was left unmet and undone from the previous movement.

It's funny. You're saying you think it's likely that they will get that one. As you were talking there, we were watching these huge concrete blocks being moved into place. It seems a extraordinary difference between the image and what you think potentially the outcome will be.

Well, we don't know. Of course. What happened before, no one predicted or imagined that the farmers would would be in the outskirts of the leeper over a year. They no one imagined that the laws would be repealed. I think we are in this terrain of the unimaginable, where democratic rights are being stripped and social movement, the farmers' movement, is doing what it can to try to regain those rights in these very brutal, oppressive moments, as you're seeing with those barriers going up.

We will be keeping a close eye on what happens next. Natasha Bihal, thank you very much coming on the program. Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.