Tractors to Twitter: India's protesting farmers battle on highway, online

In a standoff between Indian farmers and a government that has convulsed the country, the farmers have a 21st-century ally: a handful of supporters scattered around the world running a Twitter handle

In a standoff between farmers from India’s northern breadbasket and the government that has convulsed the country, the farmers have a 21st-century ally: a handful of supporters scattered around the world running a Twitter handle.

The farmers have paralysed some traffic in and out of New Delhi, protesting recent agriculture laws that they fear could eventually eliminate government-guaranteed minimum prices for their crops.

But the demonstrators, many of them from the Sikh religious minority, say they are also battling a social media campaign by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP brands some of