Dharma is worth dying for.

"Indian PM Narendra Modi has announced the repeal of three controversial farm laws after a year of protests. Thousands of farmers had camped at Delhi's borders since last November and dozens died from heat, cold and Covid," BBC. "And Mr Modi's ministers have been steadfastly insisting that the laws were good for farmers and there was no question of taking them back." "But experts say the upcoming state elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (UP) - both have a huge base of farmers - may have forced the decision." Both Punjab and UP have to elect new governments by March 2022, wikipedia. "As the Assembly polls in five states are nearing, the latest round of ABP-CVoter pre-poll survey shows that the BJP's (Modi's party) road to victory will be a difficult one. Even as the survey predicts victory for the saffron party in UP, it will suffer a huge loss in seat-share while the party and its allies will struggle to win even a single seat in Punjab," FE. "A victory in UP will open the doors to 2024," said Union Home Minister Amit Shah. UP sends 80 Members of Parliament to the lower house, the Lok Sabha, Parliament of India. The BJP got nearly 50% vote share in parliamentary elections in UP in 2019, but "an array of political and economic factors, that have emerged over the last two-and-a-half years, has raised challenges for the saffron camp," Moneycontrol. Apart from the general election in 2024, UP sends the largest number of members - 31 - to the upper house of the parliament, the Rajya Sabha, and these are "elected by the Legislative Assemblies of States and Union territories by means of a single transferable vote through proportional representation", wikipedia. Losing control of UP Assembly could result in losing control of the Rajya Sabha. Even though opinion polls predict a BJP victory in UP, Modi must have some doubts which led him to an unconditional surrender. On 3 October, hundreds of farmers in Tikunia area of Lakhimpur Kheri in UP were returning after staging protests when a SUV was driven at speed into walking protesters, followed by other cars, killing 4 farmers and journalist Raman Kashyap, wikipedia. Ashish Mishra, son of union minister, Ajay Kumar Mishra, was alleged to be driving one of the cars. The UP government, which is BJP, set up an investigation into the incident, but "The Supreme Court...expressed unhappiness over the pace of the probe by the UP police in the Lakhimpur Kheri case and recommended monitoring of SIT investigations by a retired high court judge," TOI. What were the farm laws? The first allowed farmers to engage in contract farming for large companies, the second allowed farmers to sell to private bidders, including outside the state, and the third would allow hoarding of food stocks, NDTV. What made the farmers angry? Farmers suspect that the government intends to get rid of state purchase of produce at a Minimum Support Price which guarantees a minimum income for farmers. Since food inflation hurts the poor, the government tries to keep a lid on food prices which hurts farmers' income. The laws don't stop this. Worst of all, "If a corporation violates a contract with a farmer, the new laws prohibit a farmer from seeking redress in a regular court," wrote Prof Kaushik Basu. The reason and morality were with the farmers. That is Dharma. Worth dying for.