-The Indian Express Governments past and present have used a colonial-era law to charge many ‘seditious’ men and women, most recently during the farmer protests, when a series of cases were filed against journalists and politicians. The Central Hall of Parliament doubles up as a portrait gallery. On its walls hang portraits of leaders who shaped the destiny of India. If a viceroy from British India were to walk into the hall...
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In the Twitter-govt faceoff, an undemocratic provision of law is being applied to its maximum threshold -Apar Gupta
-The Indian Express It leaves a sense of confusion and wonder about why our own government formed under the Constitution may be failing to fulfil its obligations when strangers who trade in our data for profit are seemingly more eager. The growing digitisation of Indian society is reflective in the ongoing protests by farmers. Battles are being waged every day in gram sabhas and protest sites as well on social media. Each...
More »Why Saini farmers in Uttar Pradesh aren’t supporting farmer protests -Ayush Tiwari
-Newslaundry.com Loyalty to the BJP and popularity of Republic Bharat has made the Sainis turn their backs on the movement led by Jats who claim to have support across caste groups. On February 1, Balbir Singh, 65, travelled to the ITI ground in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor to participate in a mahapanchayat against the new Farm laws passed by the Narendra Modi government. According to news reports, the gathering had more than 15,000...
More »India’s farm crisis is of the middle peasant, not the chhota kisan -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express It is the rural middle class — which experienced a roughly four-decade spell of prosperity from the 1970s and now has its back to the wall — that’s at the forefront of the agitation against the farm reform laws. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended his government’s agricultural reform laws by invoking Chaudhary Charan Singh and pointing to the “dayaniya sthiti (sorry plight)” of marginal farmers. These below-one-hectare cultivators...
More »Lessons from Champaran -SN Sahu
-The Telegraph Gandhi’s first satyagraha for the cause of farmers stands in sharp contrast to the passage of the three Farm laws today Mahatma Gandhi’s first satyagraha in India was launched in Champaran in 1917 to save farmers from the exploitation of British indigo planters — the corporates of that era engaged in contract farming. The protest bears close resemblance to the farmers’ agitation against the three Farm laws that were framed...
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