Farmers protest near Ghazipur border (Express Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)
The Opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress on Wednesday slammed the BJP government in the state and the Centre over the farmers’ ongoing stir against the new farm laws.
Former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that instead of celebrating, farmers were forced to hit the streets on “Kisan Diwas” for the first time in the history of the country. “Stop insulting farmers as “desh ka kisan, Bharat ka hai maan (farmers are the country’s honour),” he said hitting out at the BJP.
Akhilesh said farmers in Gonda and Azamgarh districts have not been paid for their produce by the sugar mills. “The government should inform why payment has not been made so far. If this was the condition of farmers in Uttar Pradesh, then what right did the BJP have to claim itself to be farmers’ well-wisher,” he added.
Explained Ideas: Why ongoing protests will hurt farmers and benefit traders
That allowing more buyers for farm produce would reduce exploitation has been the wisdom-by-consensus of almost all experts, expert committees and conferences at least since the late 1980s, writes Rajiv Mehrishi. Updated: December 23, 2020 8:59:22 am
Farmers block NH9 during their ongoing agitation near Ghazipur in the early hours of December 22, 2020. (Express Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)
Rajiv Mehrishi, former CAG of India, wonders why farmers are protesting against the new farm laws and, in doing so, protecting not their own but the interests of the traders. In his
The Indian Express, he explains why the new farm laws make sense for the farmers.
At Singhu, a tattoo stall finds many takers
Sood, who runs a tattoo studio in Ludhiana, joined the farmers’ protest on Friday with three other tattoo artists. In less than three hours, they made more than 18 tattoos. Updated: December 19, 2020 11:41:48 am
Crops, tractors were popular designs. (Express Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)
At a makeshift stall near the stage, where protesters raised slogans in between speeches, Chetan Sood (29) and his friends made free tattoos for youngsters who lined up outside.
Sood, who runs a tattoo studio in Ludhiana, joined the farmers’ protest on Friday with three other tattoo artists. In less than three hours, they made more than 18 tattoos.
walked out after a heated exchange with a BJP member.
The Union Cabinet has
approved the sale of 2251.25 MHz of spectrum across seven frequency bands at a reserve price of Rs 3.92 lakh crore. Incidentally, the reserve price being auctioned in this round is lower than the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s recommendations.
Only in Express
US-based investment firm Interups Inc is among the bidders for Air India. In fact, the company has made a series of acquisition bids through the NCLT this year. A closer look at the deals the company claims to be ‘pursuing’ in India, however, shows a patchy, if not poor, record.
Joining protest at Tikri: 2,000 women who lost family members to suicide
The women who joined the protest are mostly part of families of small farmers with limited landholdings, including four relatives of deceased farmers from Sangrur district s Jakhpal village. Updated: December 17, 2020 10:21:38 am
The group arrived in Tikri Wednesday. Prem Nath Pandey
Family members of farmers who committed suicide in Punjab over the years joined the ongoing protest at Delhi’s Tikri border Wednesday, with a few widows and mothers of the deceased farmers saying that they intend to remain at the site for the duration of the protest.
Around 2,000 women related to farmers who had committed suicide from various districts had left for the border from Punjab’s Malwa region on Tuesday in 17 buses and 10 tractor-trolleys arranged by Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan). They reached the Ugrahan group’s transit camp, around 7 km from Tikri border, where they c