Tens of thousands of farmers have blocked roads into New Delhi in recent days to protest new pro-market agricultural policies.
A standoff is taking hold in the capital.
The farmers arrived in tractors and trailers, some traveling from hundreds of miles away.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top lieutenants said they were willing to negotiate — but not until the farmers moved to New Delhi’s outskirts and stopped blocking highways.
The farmers insist they will not move their tractors or trailers until negotiations start, and have vowed to stay put for weeks.
The farm policies pushed through Parliament in September are the beginning of the end of a decades-old system that had guaranteed minimum prices for certain crops.
The Modi administration hopes they will encourage investment, but farmers say they were never consulted.
In India, more than 60 percent of the population depends on agriculture to make a living. Farmers are a huge political constituency.
The first protests started in July, in Haryana and in Punjab.
