-The Hindu Samyukt Kisan Morcha says it will not fight the elections. Ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections due early in 2022, 22 of the 32 Punjab-based farmer unions that were at the forefront of the agitation against the now repealed farm laws announced on Saturday that they would contest the election under the banner of ‘Samyukt Samaj Morcha’ even as the the umbrella body Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) that spearheaded the...

-The Telegraph The agrarian laws might have been repealed but are we any wiser about what it was that the Farmers were so against, what reforms they could do with instead of the ones thrust upon them? Even in retreat over the farm laws, the Modi government adopted the same top-down approach it employed while bringing them in in May 2020. Pleasantly surprised as they were by the Prime Minister’s unexpected announcement,...

-PTI/ NDTV.com Farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni, who was a member of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, said their aim is to "purify" politics and bring good people forward. Chandigarh: Farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni on Saturday floated his political party to contest the Punjab Assembly polls next year and batted for opium farming in the state. The farmer leader told reporters in Chandigarh that their aim is to "purify" politics and bring...

-The Telegraph In India, inequality has been normalised While we know that inequality is bad, we do not deal with it. In India, we have normalized it, just like brazen communalization, bigotry and untruth. This is perhaps because many of us are complicit in perpetuating the inequality. Some data released this month provide a grim commentary on what is happening in the underbelly of the country. Scan through the regional dailies and you...

-Down to Earth The country’s organic / natural farming coverage remains poor despite abundant indegenous resources Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to Farmers December 16 to ensure that at least one village in every gram panchayat goes for natural farming methods. He highlighted the importance of ‘gaudhan’, or use of cow dung-urine formulations, with an aim of giving a fillip to natural farming. “The maximum benefit of natural farming will be for 80...