{"id":171354,"date":"2021-09-11T01:24:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T19:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=171354"},"modified":"2021-09-11T01:24:48","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T19:54:48","slug":"farmers-raise-the-ante","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2021\/09\/11\/farmers-raise-the-ante\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers’ raise the ante"},"content":{"rendered":"

UP, Haryana Stir<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\nBy Insaf<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nine-month long farmers\u2019 agitation gets a shot in the arm in Karnal district of Haryana and Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh. The massive show of strength challenging the two BJP-ruled States should have not just Chief Minister worried, but so also the BJP headquarters. While Harayana may not be top priority as it is not going for Assembly elections, the farmers \u2018UP Mission\u2019 had had a great start. The \u2018mahapanchayat\u2019 by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), attended by thousands has one agenda\u2014 campaign and defeat the Yogi Adityanath government. Leading the charge, Bhartiya Kisan Unionchief Rakesh Tikait roared: \u201cPeople of UP will not tolerate (Home Minister) Amit Shah, (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath. If we have governments like this, there will be riots. This land witnessed the slogan of \u201cAllahu Akbar, Har Har Mahadev\u201d in the past. They talk of dividing, we speak of uniting.\u201d
\nPolitical overtones? Will the farmers eventually align with Opposition parties, such as the SP or RLD or is Tikait going to court them for the 2022 polls? It was said that UP has 8 crore farmer votes and that they must steal the political mandate from the BJP. Having tasted success, strategy will be worked out next month in Lucknow for more mahapanchayats and reaching out to every single district. While victory is a long way, a rethink by the Centre on the farm laws could be a step to stop the juggernaut.
\nLikewise, in Karnal, the farmers have Chief Minister Khattar and team worried, as the show of strength in his constituency does not augur well for the government. The protesting farmers are continuing their indefinite sit-in at the district headquarters, demanding the suspension of the IAS officer, who ordered the security forces to lathicharge them and \u2018smash their heads.\u2019 Signs of unease in the ruling party are very much there. Mobile internet services there have been suspended, as round of talks between district officials and farmers failed on Wednesday last. Despite barricades, the farmers have managed to lay siege at the mini-secretariat. It\u2019s a huge embarrassment for the state government, alright. Is it now on the backfoot? State Home Minister Vij has offered to order an impartial probe into the lathicharge but said \u201conly genuine demands (of farmers protesting in Karnal) can be accepted.\u201d Who decides, what is genuine, is the question.<\/p>\n

Innocent Not Maoists
\nDamning, is to say the least. Eight innocent lives were killed, eight years ago in Chhattisgarh! A judicial inquiry report submitted to the Cabinet on Wednesday last should make the then governments in the State and the Centre hang their heads in shame. The report by a retired judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court into the gunning down of eight tribals, including four minors by security personnel in Edesmetta, Bijapur district, concluded that none of those killed had weapons nor were they Maoists, as was alleged at the time of the incident, night of May17-18, 2013. They were \u2018unarmed and died in gunfire of 44 rounds, 18 of which were fired by a single constable of the CoBRA unit of the CRPF\u2019! The report termed the incident as \u2018a mistake\u2019 saying the security personnel \u201cmay have opened fire in panic.\u201d Ironic as it may sound, the report says 25-30 people had gathered that night to celebrate Beej Pandum, a tribal festival \u2018to worship new life\u2019 in the form of seeds, when a 1000-strong security force showed up, claiming it was a Maoist hideout. The incident, adds the report, could have been avoided had the security forces been \u2018given enough gadgets for self-defence, if they had better intelligence from the ground and had they been careful\u2019. The report has been adopted by the Cabinet. Not enough. North Block must read it and so should State governments. Every life matters.<\/p>\n

Row Over \u2018Namaz\u2019 Room
\nAllotment of a \u2018Namaz\u2019 room in Jharkhand Assembly has stirred a hornets nest. The Opposition BJP led protests both inside and outside the Assembly, before the monsoon session came to an end on Thursday last. The BJP accuses the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha of \u2018appeasement politics\u2019 and demanded the \u201cunconstitutional and undemocratic decision\u201d be withdrawn immediately, as \u2018secularism means the State shouldn\u2019t profess and promote any particular faith.\u2019 Interestingly, in the same breath, a BJP MLA demanded a \u2018separate hall for reciting Hanuman Chalisa, in Bihar Legislature\u2019, which too has a separate hall for offering Namaaz since 1993. While JD(U), BJP and Hindustani AwamMorcha (S) didn\u2019t agree with the MLA\u2019s demand, the HAM (S) asked \u201cWhat happens if people start demanding construction of a mosque in every police station just because most of it has temples.\u201d A notification \u201cAllotment of room number TW 348 as Namaz Hall for offering Namaz in the new Assembly Building,\u201d was issued last week on Speaker\u2019s order. Following the developments, Speaker Mahto formed a7-member, all-Party committee to examine the issue and submit a report within 45 days. The BJP is unwilling to accept it and insists they will protest till the notification is withdrawn. Time will tell.
\nTripura Political Violence
\nPolitical rivalry between ruling BJP and Opposition CPM in Tripura takes an ugly and violent turn, forcing the latter to seek Prime Minister Modi\u2019s intervention. On Thursday last CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury shot off a letter to Modi complaining of \u2018pre-planned\u201d attack by \u2018mobs of BJP men\u2019 with connivance of State government a day earlier. The clashes between party workers left 10 persons injured, two CPM party offices gutted, few others vandalised and vehicles burnt. CPM\u2019s state headquarters in Agartala was worst-hit among other district committee offices damaged or burnt down and \u2018houses of many party leaders and activists were attacked, ransacked or set on fire.\u2019 Even newspaper offices were not spared. \u2018Daily Desharkatha\u2019, CPM mouthpiece and Pratibadi Kalam were vandalised. Importantly, police confirmed most of the reports of arson, but the big question is where will it end. Using state power to supress dissent is all too well-known. The police, present at many of the sites was a silent bystander and some CRPF jawans, present in front of state committee office were withdrawn an hour before the attack began. Denying charges, BJP accuses the CPM cadre of fuelling trouble and instigating violence for the past few days. Sadly, in this blame game it is democracy which suffers. But does anyone care?<\/p>\n

In National Interest?
\nWatch your words, is a stern warning issued to faculty and members of staff of the Central University of Kerala. In a circular, the Registrar has asked them to abstain from giving any type of \u201cprovoking statements or lectures that are anti-national and against the interest of the nation\u201d. However, \u2018anti-national\u2019 hasn\u2019t been spelt out. The timing though gives ample hint, as it seems to be an upshot of the suspension of an Assistant Professor in Dept of International Relations and Politics who had allegedly described the Sangh Parivar and Modi government proto-fascist while teaching MA students on \u201cfascism and Nazism\u2019 way back in April. He also is said to have slammed the Centre\u2019s decision to export\u00a0Covid-19 vaccines, saying it was \u2018unpatriotic.\u2019 The Executive Council had termed his statements as \u2018anti-national\u2019. Sadly, the term is oft-heard and being blatantly misused, with a clear intent to suppress dissent and criticism in these past few years, specially by BJP-ruled governments. Be it human rights activists, civil society organisations, journalists etc, the head count is ever-increasing. The circular, predictably has ruffled feathers among the academic community. Will it trigger protests, such as the one at Visva Bharati University, against what students call \u2018saffronising\u2019 of the campus by the VC? Time will tell.\u2014 INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UP, Haryana Stir By Insaf The nine-month long farmers\u2019 agitation gets a shot in the arm in Karnal district of Haryana and Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh. The massive show of strength challenging the two BJP-ruled States should have not just Chief Minister worried, but so also the BJP headquarters. While Harayana may not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-171354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}