When one of the three farm laws i.e., The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 was enacted last year, it was argued by its proponents that the legislation would allow the farmers to sell their produce (and the traders to purchase that produce) outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee-APMC mandis after crop harvesting. In a way, that particular piece of legislation was enacted to end the...

-Livemint.com A section of the BJP’s own supporters, and its vocal middle class base appears opposed to the controversial farm laws In 2015, the first Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central government unveiled an ambitious reform to overhaul India’s land acquisition laws that would have enabled corporations easier access to land across the country. But faced with intense protests from Opposition parties, the changes were rolled back. In 2020, the second Modi-led...

-The Hindu Contrary to expectations, the BJP’s appeal among backward classes and the rural poor has petered out The phrase ‘subaltern Hindutva’ was bandied about quite a lot in academic and journalistic circles during the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly election. Many journalists and scholars covering stories from the field had a common account, that a large section of rural poor, backward classes, Dalits and Adivasis had firmly shifted towards the Bharatiya...

-The Hindu While national leaders can provide support, the ground work needs to be done by local leaders with a mass base and sustained presence in local politics Even as the nation battles the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Assembly elections have been completed in four States (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and West Bengal) and one Union Territory (Puducherry). Though citizens and governments came to be exposed to the debilitating impact...

-The Indian Express Temporary denial of food rations is one thing, cancellation of ration cards is far more serious. How many cards have been cancelled for lack of Aadhaar linkage? No one really knows. The Covid crisis has enhanced the dependence of poor people on social security schemes such as the public distribution system (PDS). Many of them, unfortunately, continue to have difficulties in accessing these schemes due to Aadhaar-related problems. Startling findings...