BBC News image captionThe farmers are demanding the repeal of three market-friendly farm laws After more than 45 days of protests and eight rounds of talks with the government, India's farmers have refused to budge. Nothing short of a repeal of three market-friendly farm laws - designed to loosen rules around the sale, pricing and storage of farm produce - will make the farmers retreat from protest sites ringing the capital, Delhi. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court, responding to a bunch of petitions, put the laws on hold. The uncertainty lingers. So why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government fail to anticipate the blowback to the laws and misread the public mood in the affected states of Punjab and Haryana? Were they lulled into complacency because a Punjab-based ally initially supported the laws? (The Akali Dal later reversed its stand and quit the government.) Did the government believe that the laws would not lead to any significant erosion of popular support?