#farmer protests in delhi

[jobaaj]

In case you missed it, here’s what you need to know: Farmers are protesting Again!! But why? In 2020, farmers protested against 3 controversial laws dubbed ‘anti-farmer’ while demanding a Minimum Support Price (MSP). The protest came to an end in 2021 when the three laws were annulled by the government but no guaranteed MSP was introduced.

Thousands of farmers, representing over 200 Unions, are marching to Delhi once again to get their demands fulfilled. Some of these demands are:- An MSP that is 50% higher than the cost of crop production. compensation for the farmers who lost their lives in the protests decommissioning the cases against the farmers who took part in the protests

Pensions for farmers. Debt waivers. Fulfillment of promises made in 2021. But there is something amiss. Why are the farmers protesting when elections are so close and Lok Sabha has almost been dissolved? Wouldn’t it be better to do so when the new government is formed? In 2021, governmental authorities claimed that Khalistani elements had infiltrated the protests. Are separatists provoking an anti-India movement when elections are right around the corner? Is this a farmers’ protest or a political move against the BJP?? Follow Jobaaj Stories (the media arm of Jobaaj.com Group) for more.

[brightattire]

Farmer Protest: इन मांगों के साथ फिर बातचीत के लिए टेबल पर बैठेंगे किसान

किसान आंदोलन को लेकर आज अहम बातचीत होने वाली है जिसपर सबकी नजर बनी हुई है. इस बीच, पंजाब किसान मजदूर संघर्ष कमेटी के महासचिव सरवन सिंह पंढ़ेर ने कहा है कि हम पूरी तरह सकारात्मक मइंड के साथ हैं. बैठक से हमें काफी उम्मीद है. हमें पूरा विश्वास है कि बैठक से कोई पॉजिटिव चीज ही निकलकर सामने आएगी. 

[sportyvaibhav]

Why Farmers Roar: Breaking Down the Delhi Chalo Protest 2024😱

In the heart of India, where the fields stretch endlessly, a powerful roar echoes across the land. The Delhi Chalo Protest of 2024 has become a rallying cry, echoing the concerns and aspirations of the farmers who till the soil. As we delve into the depths of this movement, it is crucial to understand the factors that have led to this powerful expression of dissent. The Root Cause :- The root…

[schemes-from-karnataka-schemes]

https://aadaya.com/2024/02/13/farmers-protest-in-delhi/

[timetravellingkitty]

Indian resistance is so fucking funny cause we're such an unserious people. Never stop

[workersolidarity]

(subtitles are autogenerated and are not particularly accurate)

🇮🇳 🚜 🚨

MASSIVE FARMER'S PROTESTS OUTSIDE INDIAN CAPITAL AND ACROSS THE NORTH OF THE COUNTRY

📹 Massive protests are confronted with teargas, armed police with rubber bullets and drones as thousands of farmers, mostly in India's northern Punjab region, protest on Tuesday demanding a Minimum Support Price or MSP for all crops to raise farmer's income.

Dozens of Farmer's unions participated in the strikes, calling for a "Delhi Chalo" or March to Delhi.

Police in and around the capital have erected barriers on highways surrounding New Delhi, and have begun firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the approaching farmers.

Tractors, along with thousands of farm hands, are seen in footage nearing the outskirts of New Delhi, in the northern Haryana state, being confronted by officers with gas and smoke bombs, including some dropped from buzzing drones overhead.

Authorities have shut down Internet services in some areas where protestors approach, and have erected concrete roadblocks and barriers, while local officials have banned public gatherings and are deploying extra security personnel.

Officials in New Delhi emphasized that sufficient police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed to all entry points to the city.

Farmers are demanding dozens of changes, including a new MSP or floor price for crops to increase and guarantee farmer income, as well as a full debit waiver, according to local union officials.

Political officials in New Delhi say they're open to talks, with Agriculture Minister, Arjun Munda telling reporters on Tuesday that the Federal government already is "bound to protect the interest of farmers."

"Farmers also need to understand that inconvenience shouldn’t be caused to the public,” Minister Munda said, adding the government was always ready for negotiations with the Farmer's unions.

“We are ready to do everything possible to find a solution to this issue,” he said.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[metamatar]

(btw NYT's anti china hysteria is getting journalists in india arrested)

In August 2023, The New York Times published a story “A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul”. The story investigated whether Chinese funding was being funnelled to advocacy and media organisations across the world to defend the internal authoritarianism of the Chinese state. One of the countries included was India, with a fleeting reference to an Indian digital news organisation NewsClick, which the report said “sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points”.

The report did not suggest that the organisation had committed any crime – let alone sedition or terrorism against the Indian state. But on October 3, the police in Delhi swooped down on the homes of 46 people connected to NewsClick – journalists, staffers, contributors, including academics, historians, satirists – seizing their phones and laptops, subjecting them to hours of questioning, largely about their coverage of protests by farmers and by Muslim women. NewsClick’s founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purakayastha and the head of the human resources department Amit Chakraborty were arrested under the draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

When asked about the police action, anonymous government officials invoked the New York Times article. Indian TV channels – nearly all of which are propaganda channels for the Modi regime – used the NYT story to frame the issue as a question of whether “press freedom” should be respected at the cost of “national sovereignty”.

[...] The NYT story has become a pretext to escalate an ongoing campaign to persecute and imprison some of India’s most courageous journalists, academics and activists on baseless charges of abetting “Maoist terrorism”. [...] NYT’s failure to separate specific issues of financial impropriety, propaganda, and political opinion from each other, I feared, would endanger the courageous work of journalists associated with NewsClick: for example, investigations into the financial scandals involving Gautam Adani, the tycoon who is known to be a close associate of the Indian Prime Minister. [...] The story had mentioned several media platforms (a YouTube channel in the US for instance) without identifying these by name, but had chosen to name NewsClick. It had cherry-picked an inoffensive and rather lame line from a NewsClick video and presented this as evidence of pro-China propaganda: “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.” I pointed out that this is a simple statement of opinion, and cannot be construed as Chinese government propaganda.

Left-wing softness on China or Russia might harm Uyghurs or Ukrainians, and the political health of the Left itself, but this was hardly a problem for the Modi regime.

[dailyanarchistposts]

India witnessed the rise of two large protest movements in last 2 years which saw millions taking to streets against the oppressive laws passed by the government. These were the Anti-CAA protests against the discriminative Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the farmers protests against the 3 pro-corporate farm laws. During the Anti-CAA protests, the loudest voices of dissent have been the women, from housewives to grandmothers, lawyers to students, women across India have been at the forefront of this struggle. This female-driven political awakening has been most jubilantly epitomized by the sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh, drawing a cross-generational, largely female crowd never seen in India before [1]. Then came the farmer protests, where millions of farmers took to streets to fight the anti-farmer legislation that was passed in the Indian parliament and to highlight the issues of agrarian crisis which has been growing in India for the last few decades. In these protests, there is an unprecedented solidarity being displayed in the daily rallies that draw out thousands of people all over Indian cities. There are no visible leaders calling out to people to protest in one mode or another, yet the country has found a way to speak truth to power [2].

The Shaheen Bagh protest was led mostly by Muslim women, in response to the passage of the discriminative and unconstitutional CAA passed by Parliament of India and the police attack on students of Jamia Millia Islamia University. Protesters agitated not only against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), but also against economic crisis, rising inequality, police brutality, unemployment, poverty and for women’s safety. The protesters also supported farmer unions, unions opposing the government’s anti-labour policies and protested against attacks on academic institutions. The protest started with 10–15 local women, mostly hijab wearing Muslim housewives, but within days drew crowds of up to a hundred thousand, making it one of the longest sit-in protests of this magnitude in modern India. The Shaheen Bagh protest also inspired similar style protests across the country, such as those in Gaya, Kolkata, Prayagraj, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. The protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 14 December 2019, continued their sit-in protest in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 101 days until 24 March 2020 when it ended due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Most of the women who came to Shaheen Bagh protest were first-time protesters, mostly homemakers, who were standing up to the government [3]. This was the first time they came out on a national issue which cut across religious lines. Some came with their newborns and children and some were grandparents. The women were center of protests and men supported them from the sidelines. They were creative and strategic. They governed their worlds quietly from the background and knew when a crisis needed them to cross invisible boundaries and step into the foreground. They emerged into the public space to collectively confront a looming crisis [2]. Armed with thick blankets, warm cups of tea and songs of resistance, these women have braved one of the coldest winters Delhi faced in the last 118 years [4]. These women were drivers of this protest, joining in irrespective of caste and religion, taking turns to sit-in at the site. They broke down the historically prevailing gender binary of patriarchy and took control. They also destroyed the popular imagination claiming Muslim women as powerless and lacking agency.

Shaheen Bagh in many ways typifies the protest movement that erupted across India as it was leaderless. No political party or organization could claim to be leading the protest. Instead, it was fueled primarily by these women who were residents of working-class neighborhoods of Shaheen Bagh. Since it was a leaderless protest, it could not be terminated by a few prominent organizers [5]. When they tried to “called off” the protest citing interference of political parties and security threats, the women of Shaheen Bagh rejected it and decided to continue the protests. The movement had no formal organizers and thrived on a roving group of volunteers and the local women’s tenacity alone. The lack of leaders also confused the police who are clueless on whom to approach to make these women vacate the site.

The protesters were supported and coordinated by a diverse group of more than hundred volunteers, including local residents, students and professionals. These volunteers organized themselves around different tasks such as setting up makeshift stages, shelters and bedding; providing food, water, medicine, and access to toilet facilities; installing CCTV cameras, bringing in electric heaters, outside speakers and collecting donations [6]. Donations includes mattresses, an assortment of tables that form the foundation of the stage and endless cups of steaming tea that provide warmth on cold winter days. Local residents formed informal groups which coordinated security, speakers, songs, and cultural programs that happened on these makeshift stages. People distributed tea, snacks, biryani, sweets and other eatables at the protest site. Some donated wood logs to keep the protesters warm. Collection drives for blankets and other essentials were organized through social media. A health camp was also set up beside the camped protesters which provided medicines for them. Doctors and nurses along with medical students from different medical institutes and hospitals voluntarily joined for the purpose [7]. A group of Sikh farmers from Punjab came and set up a langer (free community kitchen) in the area.

The space was decorated with art and installations [8]. Stairways leading to the closed shops in the vicinity of the protest circle were transformed into a public library and art centre by student volunteers from Jamia along with the young children of Shaheen Bagh. Protest art became the voice of resistance and dissent during the event, and the area was covered in murals, graffiti, posters and banners [9]. A reading area called “Read for Revolution” had been set up with hundreds of crowd-sourced books as well as writing materials [10]. A nearby bus stop was converted into the Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule library, which provided material on the country’s constitution, revolution, racism, fascism, oppression and various social issues [11]. Public reading spaces were created for the cause of dissent and to amplify the idea of education amongst the protesters of Shaheen Bagh. Since a majority of women of Shaheen Bagh have stepped out of their homes for the first time, this was an attempt to bring these women closer so that they read and facilitate the social change they exemplify. Besides young children, senior citizens, working people, domestic workers and many from Shaheen Bagh and nearby areas were occupying the area, choosing books or picking up colors and chart paper, while some also come to donate their old books and stationery.

लड़ो पढ़ाई करने को, पढ़ो समाज बदलने को (Fight To Read, Read To Change)

The children who were present alongside parents also participated in the protest. Most of these children would visit school in the morning before joining their parents at the protest site, which became an art space for many children [12]. They would express their thoughts and join in the protest through storytelling, poetry, puppetry, singing and painting. Student volunteers engaged the local children in reading, painting and singing, and held informal reading lessons.

Speeches, lectures, rap and shayari poetry readings were held every day [13]. Activists, artists and social workers came and gave talks on various issues faced by Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, the disabled, LGBTQ people, and all those who are oppressed. The stage is democratic and hosts poets and professors, housewives and elders, civil society groups and civic leaders, actors and celebrities and of course students – from Jamia, JNU to the local government schools. A large number of women participate in open-mics to express their thoughts, many speaking in public for the first time. The protestors read the Preamble of the Constitution which reminds them of their rights of Liberty, Equality and Justice. If the Shaheen Bagh stage had a bias, it is towards women and those, from academia and elsewhere, who can educate them not just on CAA-NRC-NPR, but also the freedom struggle, Ambedkar, Gandhi and the ideas that animate the preamble to the constitution [13]. The chants of “inquilab zindabad (long live the revolution!)”and “save the Constitution” filled the site. At night people would watch films and documentaries which were screened on the site, about refugee crisis, anti-fascist struggles and revolution. Musical and cultural events were also conducted in solidarity with anti-CAA protests. This occupy protest provided an example of how to create a community without government support by voluntary association and mutual aid, make decisions in a democratic way where everyone takes part and decentralize power by having no organizers or leaders who control everything. These elements of anarchist organizing is also visible in the farmers’ protest.

Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2% of all farmers in India, but own just 47.3% of the crop area. A total of 2,96,438 farmers have committed suicide in India from 1995–2015 [14]. 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India every day [15]. India is already facing a huge agrarian crisis and the 3 new laws have opened up door for corporatization of agriculture by dismantling the Minimum Support Price (MSP) leaving the farmers at the mercy of the big capitalist businesses.

The farmers protest began with farmers unions holding local protests against the farmer bills mostly in Punjab. After two months of protests, farmers from Punjab and Haryana began a movement named Dilli Chalo (Go to Delhi), in which tens of thousands of farmers marched towards the nation’s capital [16]. The Indian government used police to attack the protesters using water cannons, batons, and tear gas to stop them from entering Delhi. On 26 November 2020, the largest general strike in the world with over 250 million people, took place in support of the farmers [17]. A crowd of 200,000 to 300,000 farmers converged at various border points on the way to Delhi. As protest, farmers blocked the highways surrounding Delhi by sitting on the roads [18]. Transport unions representing 14 million truck drivers also came out in support of the farmers. The farmers have told the Supreme court of India that they won’t listen to courts if asked to back off. They organized a tractor rally with over 200,000 tractors on the Republic day and stormed the historic Red Fort [19]. The government barricaded the capital roads with cemented nails and trenches to stop farmers and electricity, Internet, and water supply were cut off from the protest sites.

Scores of langars, i.e. free community kitchens have been set up by farmer’s organizations and NGOs to meet the food needs of the hundreds of thousands of farmers in the farmers-camps that have sprung up on the borders of Delhi [20]. The farmers came fully equipped to prepare mass meals in these community kitchens with supplies coming from their villages daily. Tractors and trucks with sacks of vegetables and flour as well as cans of oil and milk arrive daily from villages and towns where pooling resources for community meals is a way of life. These langars work round the clock and provide free food without distinction of caste, class, or religion. Supporters of the farm protest often bring almonds, apples, sweets, and packaged water. They even supplied a machine that rolls out a thousand “rotis” every hour. Social media is used to collect blankets and other essentials for these protests who are braving the harsh winter. Many protestors camp on the roadside in the cold Delhi winter and spending nights curled up in tractor trailers. Volunteers have set up solar-powered mobile charging points, laundry stalls with washing machines, medical stalls for medicines, arranged doctors and nurses, dental camps and brought foot massage chairs for elderly protesters [21].

A makeshift school has been set up at the camp, called “Sanjhi Sathh” (a common place) to recreate a village tradition of holding discussions on important issues. Children from underprivileged families who are unable to attend school due to financial issues and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic come to this tent. It has library, which displays biographies of Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, revolutionary Che Guevara, and other books of various genres and newspapers in English, Hindi and Punjabi languages. Dozens of posters with slogans written on them cover every inch of the tarpaulin tents [22]. Farmers also installed CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the protest site and keep a record of what is happening and counter any narrative to discredit their protest. Farmers protest also saw participation of women coming out to protest in large numbers. Women farmers and agricultural workers were riding tractors from their villages and rallying to the protest sites, unfazed by the gruesome winter.

Just like Shaheen Bagh protest, this is a decentralized leaderless protest by hundreds of farmer unions. Even though the negotiations with the government are being attended by representatives of 32 farmer unions, they act as spoke persons who present the collective demand of all farmers. Whenever Government introduces a new proposal, the representatives come back to the unions where they sit together, discuss, debate and decide the future course of action together in a democratic way. Farmers are conducting Kisan Mahapanchayats (public meetings) which are attended by hundreds of thousands of people in villages around Delhi, UP, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana to discuss strategies and ways to put pressure on the government. It was this decentralization that made the protest robust and overcome the condemnation around violence during Republic day Truck Rally. Even though many farm union leaders called for ending the protest, the farmers remained steadfast in their decision to not go back till the laws were repelled.

The sites of the two protests mentioned above can be compared to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) that was set up in Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters during the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by Police [23]. CHAZ was a nascent commune, built through mutual aid where no police was allowed and almost everything was free.

CHAZ, Shaheen Bagh and Farmers’ protests were occupation protests where the protestors set up a community themselves and created an autonomous zone. If one was against racism and police brutality, others were against religious discrimination and agrarian crisis. The protests were mostly self-organized and without an official leadership. The sites were filled with protest art, paintings, film screenings and musical performances [24]. Just like the mutual aid cooperative in CHAZ, free food, water, snacks and other supplies were provided to everyone. Areas were set up for assemblies and to facilitate discourse [25].

CHAZ was a leaderless zone, where the occupants favored consensus decision-making in the form of a general assembly, with daily meetings and discussion [26]. They slept in tents, cars and surrounding buildings, relying on donations from local store owners and activists. They collected donations for the homeless and created community gardens [27]. Medical stations were established to provide basic health care.

Anarchism tries to create institutions of a new society “within the shell of the old,” to expose, subvert, and undermine structures of domination but always, while doing so, proceeding in a democratic fashion, a manner which itself demonstrates those structures are unnecessary [28]. Anarchists observe what people are already doing in their communities, and then tries to tease out the hidden symbolic, moral, or pragmatic logic that underlie their actions and tries to make sense of it in ways that they are not themselves completely aware of. They look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are already doing, and then offer those ideas back, not as prescriptions, but as contributions [28]. They understand that people are already forming self-organized communities when the state has failed them and we can learn a lot about direct action and mutual aid from these communities.

Direct democratic decision making, decentralization of power, solidarity, mutual aid and voluntary association are the core principles of anarchist organizing. Anarchists employ direct action, disrupting and protesting against unjust hierarchy, and self-managing their lives through the creation of counter-institutions such as communes and non-hierarchical collectives. Decision-making is handled in an anti-authoritarian way, with everyone having equal say in each decision. They participate in all discussions in order to build a rough consensus among members of the group without the need of a leader or a leading group. Anarchists organize themselves to occupy and reclaim public spaces where art, poetry and music are blended to display the anarchist ideals. Squatting is a way to regain public space from the capitalist market or an authoritarian state and also being an example of direct action. We can find elements of these in all these protests and that is the reason for their robustness and success. It bursts the myth that you need a centralized chain of command with small group of leaders on top who decide the strategies and a very large group of followers who blindly obey those decisions for the sustenance and success of large scale organizing. All these protests were leaderless protests where people themselves decided and came to a consensus on the course of action to be followed in a democratic way. When people decide to take decisions themselves and coordinate with each other in small communities by providing aid to each other, it creates the strongest form of democracy and solidarity.

The fact that these protests happened, with so many people collectively organizing and cooperating, for such a long duration, shows us that we can self-organize and create communities without external institutions and it can be civilized and more democratic than the autocratic bureaucracy and authoritarian governments which concentrate all power and oppress people. These protests were driven by mostly by uneducated women, poor farmers and people from other marginalized communities, who showed that they can create communities which are more moral and egalitarian, than those that exist in hierarchical societies with the affluent and highly educated. They showed that people who are oppressed and underprivileged can organize themselves into communities of mutual aid and direct democracy which eliminates a need for coercive hierarchical systems of governance which exist only to exploit them.

What these occupy protests show us is that we can form communities and collectively organize various forms of democratic decision making simultaneously providing everyone their basic needs. There protests show us models of community organizing in large scales comprising hundreds of thousands of people. Even though they are not perfect we can learn the ideas these protests emulate – of solidarity, mutual aid, direct democracy, decentralization of power and try to recreate these in our lives and communities.

References

[1]

H. E. Petersen and S. Azizur Rahman, “‘Modi is afraid’: women take lead in India’s citizenship protests,” The Guardian, 21 January 2020.

[2]

N. Badwar, “Speaking truth to power, in Shaheen Bagh and beyond,” Livemint, 17 January 2020.

[3]

B. Kuchay, “Shaheen Bagh protesters pledge to fight, seek rollback of CAA law,” Al Jazeera, 15 January 2020.

[4]

“Shaheen Bagh: The women occupying Delhi street against citizenship law — ‘I don’t want to die proving I am Indian’,” BBC, 4 January 2020.

[5]

K. Sarfaraz, “Shaheen Bagh protest organiser calls it off, can’t get people to vacate,” The Hindustan Times, 2 January 2020.

[6]

“The volunteers of Shaheen Bagh,” The Telegraph (Culcutta), 24 December 2019.

[7]

“Behind Shaheen Bagh’s Women, An Army of Students, Doctors & Locals,” The Quint, 14 January 2020.

[8]

R. Venkataramakrishnan, “The Art of Resistance: Ringing in the new year with CAA protesters at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh,” Scroll.in, 6 January 2020.

[9]

A. Bakshi, “Portraits of resilience: the new year in Shaheen Bagh,” 2 January 2020.

[10]

J. Thakur, “Shaheen Bagh Kids and Jamia Students Make Space for Art, Reading and Revolution,” The Citizen, 11 January 2020.

[11]

F. Ameen, “The Library at Shaheen Bagh,” The Telegraph (Culcutta), 20 January 2020.

[12]

A. Purkait, “In Shaheen Bagh, Children Paint Their Protest while Mothers Hold Dharna,” Makers India, 22 January 2020.

[13]

S. Chakrabarti, “Shaheen Bagh Heralds a New Year With Songs of Azaadi,” The Wire, 31 December 2019.

[14]

P. Sainath, “Maharashtra crosses 60,000 farm suicides,” People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), 21 July 2014.

[15]

R. Sengupta, “Every day, 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India,” Down to Earth, 3 September 2020.

[16]

“Dilli Chalo | Farmers’ protest enters fifth day,” The Hindu, 30 November 2020.

[17]

S. Joy, “At least 25 crore workers participated in general strike; some states saw complete shutdown: Trade unions,” Deccan Herald, 26 November 2020.

[18]

“Farmers’ Protest Highlights: Protesting farmers refuse to budge, say ‘demands are non-negotiable,” The Indian Express, 1 December 2020.

[19]

G. Bhatia, “Tractors to Delhi,” Reuters, 29 January 2021.

[20]

“Langar Tradition Plays Out in Farmers Protest, Students Use Social Media To Organise Essentials,” India Today, 2 December 2020.

[21]

J. Sinha, “Protest site draws ‘Sewa’ – medicine stalls, laundry service, temple & library come up,” Indian Express, 11 December 2020.

[22]

B. Kuchay, “A school for the underprivileged at Indian farmers’ protest site,” AlJazeera, 24 January 2021.

[23]

D. Silva and M. Moschella, “Seattle protesters set up ‘autonomous zone’ after police evacuate precinct,” NBC News, 11 June 2020.

[24]

C. Burns, “The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone Renames, Expands, and Adds Film Programming,” The Stranger, 10 June 2020.

[25]

H. Allam, “‘Remember Who We’re Fighting For’: The Uneasy Existence Of Seattle’s Protest Camp,” NPR, 18 June 2020.

[26]

K. Burns, “Seattle’s newly police-free neighborhood, explained,” Vox, 16 June 2020.

[27]

h. Weinberger, “In Seattle’s CHAZ, a community garden takes root | Crosscut,” Crosscut, 15 June 2020.

[28]

D. Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, 2004.

[murghmalaitikka]

"After the crucial second round of talks with the government failed to make any headway, the protesting farmers carried on with their Delhi Chalo march on Tuesday. There were reports of chaos on the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border as the Haryana police fired teargas shells as farmers tried to break the erected barricades. Drones have been deployed to keep track of farmers’ movements, most of whom are on tractors.

Delhi has imposed Section 144 throughout the city for 30 days, erected barricades and iron spikes on the borders to prevent the farmers from entering the Capital.

Internet and bulk SMS services were suspended for Tuesday in seven districts of Haryana- Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa. Several farmer leaders’ social media accounts were also reportedly blocked the previous day.

The farmers’ protest, being led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, has been demanding legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, as promised by the BJP-led government at the Centre, among other demands like loan waiver and implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations. The farmers participating in the protest are mainly from Punjab and Haryana."

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrian-state-media-says-several-israeli-missiles-hit-damascus-2024-02-21/

[brightattire]

शंभू बॉर्डर पर फिर प्रदर्शन के लिए जुटे किसान, पुलिस ने छोड़े आंसू गैस के गोले

किसान बुधवार सुबह एक बार फिर अपना ‘दिल्ली चलो’ मार्च शुरू करने के लिए अंबाला के पास शंभू सीमा पर एकत्र हुए, जिसके चलते भीड़ को तितर-बितर करने के लिए हरियाणा पुलिस ने आंसू गैस के गोले दागे.

[shut-up-rabert]

Do u know what POCSO act is? In this case, the police cannot give bail to the accused. The police first arrests the accused and then proceed with the investigation. Why is he not arrested? Why is he roaming freely? Why is he attending various political functions? “It took seven days for the Delhi Police to register an FIR against sexual harasser Brij Bhushan and it didn’t even take seven hours to register an FIR against us for peacefully protesting." -Sakshi Malik, The Olympic and Commonwealth Medalist who is the pride of the nation according to Mr.Modi. Also the wrestlers are demanding a committee that is unbiased not the one that has brij Bhushan's sympathizers. I agree that the protesters broke barricades, but do you think these medalists deserved to be manhandled like that? So according to you anybody who protests against the modi government (shaheen bagh protesters, farmers, congressis) are anti national. Wow what a way to put it?

Hey

Yes, I do know what Pocso act is.

Now tell me, do YOU know what section 41A of CRPC is? How it instructs the officers to act, how they are given discretionary powers in cognizable offences that section 41 defines?

Brij Bushan’s case has provided no evidence, the officers, if they do not have a reasonable doubt, need not arrest.

The case and its investigation could have been delayed because of political reasons, true, but nothing is outside the bounds of legality technically speaking if that's what you are trying to imply.

This rule regarding cognizable offences was enacted in case a serious threat lurks around the victim, but the fact is that such cases have ruined lives aswell. False allegations during Me too is a prime example and hence the existence of this law. No arrest warrant has been issued yet despite the deadlines either.

And like I said, lack of evidence means the case can go either side.

FIR against Brij Bhushan was not filed as quickly, because he was an MP from the ruling party. Is that what you want to hear me admit? Then yes, that is the case, cry me a fucking river and welcome to politics. That's the case for every party, because no one wants their members dragged. Whether he is guilty of the crimes or not, only time will tell, like it did with Modi in Godhra.

The wrestlers are demanding his arrest and resignation as the chief, this was never as much about the comittee boss. The findings are being kept secret and the accusations against them are piling, so it could be that their is some dirty work going on behind the scenes or some sensitive data involved, but neither speculation is enough to form a concrete opinion as of yet – even if former seems stronger than the latter – but an eyebrow raising suspicion, if you really want to.

As of choosing Brij Bhushan Sympathisers, maybe you are right about Mary Kom, she is close to BJP but one of the Commitee members was Babita Phogat, who happens to be Vinesh’s Cousin and a wrestler herself. Make what you will of that.

If you think that he should have been arrested based on the system's somewhat shady behaviour, that is a matter entirely upto you, but the thing is we still do not know whether he assaulted them or not, so you cannot hold me responsible for refusing to chose a side.

Wrestlers should not have been manhandled, that is true, but that was an outcome of breaking the law, not a cause of it. I do not believe it threatens their case as much because it can be just frustration, but law is law, and the last time people forgot the rules while protesting, well, we lost some pretty big bills that would have benifitted the nation.

And lastly, can you not read? I specifically reffered to Shaheen Bagh and Farmer’s protest as anti national. Not because they were “protesting against the governments”, but because they were being incited by organisations that are now banned, had leaders or patrons who are either to be arrested as soon as they enter the Republic of India or booked under UAPA. I did not include the wrestlers here because the barricade thing aside, they have been genuinely lawful in their protests and irrespective of whether the charges are true or not, they handled their complaints well.

[timetravellingkitty]

hi! sorry this is random lmao😭 but like my friends are arguing about modi and how he is good and shit- (I am definitely losing braincells due to that conversation and I want to bang my head against the wall) can you explain some of the stuff he has done bc im having a hard time explaining it in a concise manner 💀

wow i'm so early oops but speedrunning; there's weaponsing the ed and cbi, limited press freedom, farmers' protests, wrestlers' protests, abetting ethnic violence in gujarat (2002) and manipur (2023), censoring media critical of modi, bulldozer raj, the 2020 delhi pogroms

oh and income inequality is worse now than under british rule

[invenuos]

do y'all remember when hathras happened. or cab. or farmer's protests. wrestlers. assam burning. do y'all remember blackened newses happening three years ago (delhi danga, violence at jnu, college students protests, shaheen bagh, the lynchings) and then the way they trickled to a stop being shown in mainstream media. do you remember reporters and comedians and activists and teachers being locked for having an opinion against the power, until everyone simply became so afraid that it stopped happening. do you remember when votes were compromised, just sworn-in governments toppled bcs they were opposition. remember how houses were bulldozed over bcs they were of minority, of poor people. do you remember when they put kashmir under total lockdown, beseeching all human rights of expression and dissent for what was happening. do you know about manipur. do you know of the insidious way propaganda has seeped into this country. the polarization that is goal. how the media is a farce at best. of how much we are turning a blind eye to. this country is burning. the government is behind it all. do you remember of any time this government cared to listen from its people? would you remember?

[12blogmk]

Twitter founder's charge of pressure 'outright lie': Government | India News

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday hit back at Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, terming his comments as “outright lies” after he claimed authorities had threatened to shut down the services of the site in India and raid homes of its employees unless Twitter removed sensitive posts during the 2021 farmers’ protests.“This is an outright lie by Jack Dorsey, perhaps an attempt to…

[news-venue]

"When We Were Dragged On Roads…": Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia Join Congress

Shaking up the political landscape in Haryana weeks ahead of the Assembly elections in the state, wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia have joined the Congress.

Both Olympians, who had been at the forefront of last year's protests against the alleged sexual assault and intimidation by former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, had met senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday.

On Friday, Ms Phogat and Mr Punia, who are both 30 years old, met Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence before formally joining the party at its headquarters in New Delhi.

"Chak de India, Chak de Haryana! Met our talented champions Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who have made India proud in the world, at 10, Rajaji Marg. We are proud of both of you," Mr Kharge posted in Hindi on X.

The entry of the wrestlers into the Congress is expected to give it a boost as Ms Phogat is seen to enjoy support among farmers, who make up a significant voting bloc in Haryana. The Congress is hoping that the farmers' anger against the BJP will help it dislodge the party from a state it has ruled since 2014.

The Congress will also hope that Mr Punia and Ms Phogat joining the party will give it an upper hand in its negotiations with INDIA ally AAP in seat-sharing for the 90 constituencies in the state. While an in-principle agreement regarding an alliance had been announced on Wednesday, there appears to be a stalemate between the two parties with the AAP seeking 10 seats and the Congress willing to give up only five to seven.

Upbeat after winning five out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana this year after the BJP's clean sweep in 2019, the state unit of the Congress was reluctant to part with any Assembly constituencies but the push for a tie-up has reportedly come from Rahul Gandhi, who has maintained that it will ensure there is no division of votes and give the party its best possible chance to defeat the BJP.

Differences within the Congress have reportedly delayed its first list of candidates and the BJP has been facing pushback and a rebellion since it did so on Wednesday, with Energy Minister Ranjit Chautala and MLA Lakshman Napa quitting the party after being denied tickets. Mr Chautala has said he will contest as an Independent and Mr Napa has announced that he will be joining the Congress.

Mr Chautala is the son of Chaudhary Devi Lal Chaudhary, one of Haryana's tallest leaders, who served as chief minister twice and was also a deputy prime minister.