Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modiover India’s border standoff with China, saying that if Congress been in power, it would have thrown out China from the country in less than 15 minutes.
The former Congress president while addressing a public gathering at Anaj Mandi here late this evening, as part of his ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a “coward”.
“The coward PM says that no one has taken our land. Today, there is only one country in the world whose land has been taken by another country. India is the only country where another country came in and took away 1200 square km. And PM calls himself a ‘deshbhakt’ and the whole country knows that China’s forces are inside our territory, what kind of patriot he is? If we were in power we would have thrown out China in less than 15 minutes,” Gandhi said.
“I guarantee you when our government was there, China did not have enough power to put even one step in our country. There is only one nation in the entire world whose land has been usurped and that is India and they call themselves patriots,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi offered prayers at Geeta Sthali in Kurukshetra.
The Mumbai Police on Thursday alleged that Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV has been manipulating television rating points (TRP) data to boost its advertising revenue.
Republic TV — an English news channel launched by Goswami in 2017 — has been consistently topping the viewership charts released weekly by industry body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) since it hit the screens.
Even Republic Bharat — the group’s Hindi news channel launched last year, has topped BARC’s TRP charts in the Hindi news genre.
But the Mumbai Police Crime Branch has accused Republic and two other channels, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema, of being involved in a “major racket” of manipulating viewership data.
Addressing a press conference Thursday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said the police has already made some arrests, including the owners of the other two channels, and is in the process of questioning more people.
“If needed, we can even call the owners, promoters and directors of Republic TV for questioning,” the commissioner said.
Republic TV is owned and managed by ARG Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited, which is a subsidiary company of SARG Media Holding Private Limited, of which Arnab and his wife Samyabrata Goswami are co-founders and promoters, and own 93 per cent of the shares.
Republic TV has denied the allegations in a statement on behalf of Arnab Goswami, saying Singh is making false allegations against it since it “questioned” him in connection with the investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide.
Meanwhile, a BARC India spokesperson said: “As in all our previous cases of suspected panel homes intrusions, BARC India continues to follow its established vigilance and disciplinary guidelines. BARC remains steadfastly true to its purpose to accurately and faithfully report ‘what India watches’. BARC India appreciates the efforts of the Mumbai Police and will provide the support asked of it.”
2020 is a year of the establishment of political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes that redefined the meaning of gender existence which is a neuropsyuchosocial phenomenon. Feminism is not only about gender equality, it is an infusion of critical thinking, uplifting and empowering the working class, addressing corporate power, and ways to bridge the gap between rich and poor. Women of now are not confined to the house chores only instead, they are busy changing the world, in making the world a better place for humans. In a privileged society like this, women strive hard to survive every day, but what we see is, they are shining and rising with the propagation of the universal law of gender equality, which had been destroyed by the ingrained prejudice against women. Equality not superiority, decision-making power, and the right to sexual autonomy must be granted to every gender.
Women in Asia contribute about 36 percent of Asia’s GDP, India has the biggest potential, at 18 percent of GDP, but it’s high for China as well, at 13 percent. And even for Japan and Singapore and some of the more mature economies, a 5 percent to 6 percent GDP. About 40 to 45 percent of entry-level positions in Asian companies are occupied by women. There’s a lot more for women in today’s date, in China, the All-China Women’s Federation is working with a range of tech companies to boost tech-based skills and entrepreneurship for women. In India, Google and Tata Trusts are working on women’s digital-literacy programs in villages. In Indonesia, the largest e-commerce platforms are cultivating women and training them. UN Women Pakistan, with support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Pakistan, initiated a three-year (2017 – 2020) project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Home-based Workers and Excluded Groups in Pakistan’.
61 percent young women work in agriculture forestry and fishing, 21 percent in manufacturing industry, and 16 percent in community, social and personal services. When we talk about employment by occupations, 11 percent work as professionals, 2 percent are services and sales workers, 52 percent skilled agricultural and fishery workers, 19 percent in craft and related trades.
“Women are leaders everywhere you look—from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.”
—Nancy Pelosi
CEO of YouTube, Oracle, COO of Facebook, CFO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, President of the European Central Bank, CEO of Bumble, IBM, Chairperson of Pakistan Herald Publications, are women.
“I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. … We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.”
—Malala Yousafzai (shot in the head, her crime is to have spoken up for the right of girls to be educated.)
Since a long time women have been in the forefront of activism and protests. Movements like #MeToo and Time’s Up have build up a momentum and making the women powerful than ever before! The right to work, to end the wage gap based on gender, to destroy the construction of Men running society, to kill the idea of male dominant culture, to break the old school norms where women are suppressed in the name of religion and culture, to call out internal misogyny, sexism, injustice and all kinds of abuse towards women, is what a society needs in order to work in sync with the universal laws which has given women a dignified status. We need to create a place where women are given freedom, space, a safe and secure atmosphere, fair treatment so that they can earn, get education, live their life without any barriers of man made rules. Also, feminism is intersectional; it should not exclude people based on their gender, race, socioeconomic status, ability, or sexual orientation.
“It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals. We should stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are.”
Emma Watson
Women empowerment is not only about the advocacy of a feminine gender, the theoretical framework revolves around the equality of all genders. Women are not only uplifting themselves, but speaking and striving to raise the voice for other genders as well. If we see women empowering and coming forward in every field, we can also realise the fact that people who belong to LGBT community are also getting their rights, slowly and gradually. About 40% of LGBT employees work in industries, 15% of LGBT workers are in restaurants and food services, and 7.5% works in hospitals. Gender recognition at workplace is something that disposes social harmony and economic strength, whereas gender discrimination is a significant factor in the slow growth of economy due to less labour or work force.
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” – Maya Angelou
Any gender raising its voice is a fundamental human right, or getting fulfilment of rights is not a privilege. Unfortunately, due to less exposure in past times and orthodox teachings we had given the power of authority to men, with that he rules over and women have not had the kind of opportunities that men have enjoyed. But now women of today are brave, unapologetic, opinionated, and know how to cut off the patterns that no longer serve to their interests for a better future tomorrow as the new social order incorporates the idea of intersectionality more than anything else.
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, who recently underwent a heart surgery, died today at a Delhi hospital where he was recuperating. The 74-year-old was undergoing treatment at the hospital, and had to undergo surgery “due to the situation that had suddenly emerged,” his son Chirag Paswan had tweeted on Saturday.
“Papa… Now you are not in this world but I know you are always with me wherever you are. Miss you Papa,” Chirag Paswan tweeted this evening.
He shared an old photo of him and his father along with the tweet.
पापा….अब आप इस दुनिया में नहीं हैं लेकिन मुझे पता है आप जहां भी हैं हमेशा मेरे साथ हैं। Miss you Papa… pic.twitter.com/Qc9wF6Jl6Z
A Malayali journalist Siddique Kappan and three others who were arrested by the UP police on Monday in Mathura while on their way to Hathras, UP, have been booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and sedition. On Tuesday, they were remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody by a local court in Mathura.
The FIR shows that the four have been booked under 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as section 17 (punishment for raising funds for terrorist act) and 14 (punishment for unlawful activities) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
On Tuesday, the Press Club of India (PCI) in its statement condemning the arrest of the journalist and demanding his immediate release, had said, “In these circumstances our worry is that UP Police may not fight shy of using anti-terrorism provisions with which to charge the Kerala journalist.” The Delhi unit of Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seeking his release, saying he was going to Hathras only to perform his duty as a reporter. Terming Kappan’s arrest as illegal and unconstitutional, the KUWJ also filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking his immediate production before the court and release from the “illegal detention”.
The Uttar Pradesh police had on Monday said that it seized the mobile phones, laptops and some literature, which “could have an impact on peace and law and order”, from the arrested people. During interrogation, it came to light that the four arrested people had links with the PFI and its associate organisation Campus Front of India, the UP police had claimed.
The three others arrested have been identified as Atiq-ur Rehman, Masood Ahmed and Alam. While Rehman and Ahmed are members of the Campus Front of India (CFI), the student wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI), Alam was driving the vehicle in which they were travelling to Hathras.
The PFI had said that “the UP Police is trying to divert the attention of the issue by creating a conspiracy theory”. According to a statement released by the organisation, “Such acts only show their nervousness due to the growing anger among the people of UP and rest of the country. The Popular Front will not be intimidated by such tactics of suppression by the UP govt.”
A youth leader of the CPI(M), Sanoop U (26), from Thrissur district of Kerala was hacked to death on Sunday late night (October 4) by right-wing activists, reportedly linked with the Bharatiya Janata Party and allied sangh parivar organisations. The murdered activist, branch secretary of CPI(M) Puthussery Colony in Chovvannur Panchayat, was attacked along with three other young workers of CPI(M) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).
The attack took place at around 11.30 PM on Sunday night at Chittilangode near Eyyal. Three others- workers, Vipin, Jithu, and Abhijit- who are critically injured in the attack, have been admitted to hospital.
So far, four activists of RSS, BJP and Bajrang Dal- Nandan, Satheesh, Sreerag and Abhay Raj- have been identified in connection with the brutal murder of Sanoop. According to the police, all four of the identified accused have criminal background and Nandan stabbed Sanoop. Reportedly, a gang of eight carried out this attack.
Police has also found a car near Erumappetty Taluk Hospital, which was used by people involved in the attack.
The attackers reportedly targeted Sanoop and others while they were returning after making arrangement for food which DYFI distributes at Thrissur Medical College Hospital every day. DYFI Chovvannur area committee had the charge of food distribution on Monday.
In all medical colleges and district hospitals across the state, food kits are being distributed for poor patients and their bystanders by DYFI. Various local committees of DYFI take turn each day and the members of DYFI collect food packets from households that come under their area and these collected food packets are being distributed at hospitals.
Despite, the murder, state secretary of DYFI, AA Raheem said, “His comrades will ensure that the food packets are being distributed as planned.”
A C Moideen, the minister of Local Self Governance, who hails from Thrissur visited the area and pointed out that the prime accused in the case are associated with the RSS and the Bajrang Dal.
“The prime accused and others are associated with the RSS and Bajrang Dal. Police are probing the matter. Those in hospital have suffered multiple stab wounds. This is a stronghold of CPI(M). The party has been fighting gangs involved in drug peddling. We suspect the RSS is engaged in protecting these peddlers,” Minister said.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at a BJP MLA who said rapes can only be stopped if parents teach ‘sanskar‘ or values to their daughters amid nationwide outrage over the alleged gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras.
“This is the filthy RSS male chauvinist mentality at work. Men do the raping but women need to be taught good values,” he said, commenting on the BJP leader Surendra Singh’s remark on Twitter. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS is the ideological mentor of the BJP which governs UP and at the centre.
With his party’s government under searing criticism over the savage assault on the woman and the administration’s actions since, the BJP leader had said, “It’s the duty of all mothers and fathers to imbibe good values in their daughters and bring them up in cultured environments.”
“I am a teacher along with being an MLA. Such incidents (like rape) can be stopped only with sanskar not with shasan (governance) or talwar (referring to sword or might),” Surendra Singh said had on Saturday, when asked about the crimes against women in the state.
The 20-year-old woman, from the long-oppressed Dalit community, was attacked on September 14 in a field near her home in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by a group of so-called “upper caste” men. Her death on Tuesday sparked nationwide protests.
Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad this evening met the family of the 20-year-old woman who died in Delhi after alleged gang rape and torture in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras. The Bhim Army chief marched for about five km after he was stopped by the police for the first time when he was on his way. He was stopped again when he entered Hathras and was told “not all the people accompanying him could go along”.
Demanding Y-Plus category security for the family, Chandrashekar Azad this evening said: “When Kangana Ranaut can be given Y-plus security, meetings are being held to back the accused… I demand that the government arranges Y-Plus category security for the victim’s family. We have all seen that the CBI follows the government’s orders.”
“Under the present leadership, the CBI is being used only to scare people. We want a probe monitored by a retired Supreme Court judge,” he added.
Yogi Adityanath on Saturday had handed over the case to the CBI.
Chandrashekhar Azad also held a massive protest when he was stopped by the UP Police for a second time when he had entered Hathras. Visuals showed him standing on top of a truck and addressing a massive crowd.
Another video showed Chandrashekar Azad, wearing a white kurta, marching with other members of the Bhim Army. The protesters, carrying flags, raised slogans against the government.
The Bhim Army Chief, also called “Raavan”, urged the administration to let him take the victim’s family along with them, a request that was turned down,
Chandrashekhar Azad’s Hathras visit comes a day after the Congress leaders – Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – met the family at their home.
On Friday, the Bhim Army chief joined a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar where hundreds of people came with placards and shouted slogans against the incident, which has sparked massive outrage.
“Our struggle will continue till Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister [Yogi Adityanath] doesn’t resign and justice is not served. I urge the Supreme Court to take note of the incident,” he said at Jantar Mantar.
The Bhim Army also led a protest earlier this week outside Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital where the young woman died of horrific injuries suffered in the assault.
“In the same Uttar Pradesh that elected him and sent him to parliament, there is brutality against a daughter from Hathras. She was raped and murdered… her bones broken and body cremated like garbage. When there is human rights violation in Uttar Pradesh, does not the Prime Minister say a word?” Chandrashekhar Azad had said earlier in an emotional message, attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi – an MP from UP’s Varanasi.
I was reading Azadi, the latest work by Arundhati Roy, at my home in Calicut, Kerala when I came to know about Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were stopped by the Uttar Pradesh police at 1.30 pm, Friday the Yamuna Expressway, 140 km away from Hathras. Interestingly, I was going through Arundhati’s opinion about the importance of freedom struggles in the streets across the nation and how the Narendra Modi administration at centre keeps trying to suppress the consents. I stopped reading and started listening to the dramatic videos continuously aired on different news channels.
Rahul Gandhi also fell down in the scuffle after police tried to stop him and his supporters from proceeding on the Yamuna Expressway near the Jewar toll plaza. Pictures of the incident were shared by the party. The Congress had said that the Gandhis were arrested by the police. Rahul Gandhi earlier questioned senior UP cops under which law was he being stopped as all he wanted was to walk alone towards Hathras to meet the rape victim’s family. “Can you tell me under which law can you stop me from marching towards Hathras,” he asked the police personnel.
“I want to go alone to Hathras and on what basis can you arrest me,” he added, to which the cops told him that he had violated Section 188 of the IPC of disobeying orders promulgated by the government during the pandemic. Rahul Gandhi also alleged that in India today only RSS people and Prime Minister Narendra Modi can move around.
Finally, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and three other senior Congress leaders visited the family of the 20-year old alleged gang rape and assault victim in Hathras’ Boolgarhi village Saturday and promised to seek justice for them. In a 45-minute discussion with the victim’s mother, father, sister and three siblings, Rahul declared that Congress will not stop until the Dalit family gets justice. “Nobody can subjugate them, not even the BJP government that is in power here. There is no force on to stop them from getting justice,” Rahul Gandhi said and it was a word from a true political leader. Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K.C. Venugopal and P.L. Punia also accompanied the Gandhis. The Congress leaders were allowed to visit the family Saturday only after a major scuffle between the party members and the Uttar Pradesh Police at the Delhi-Noida flyway. High drama ensued as 35 Congress MPs and scores of party workers, besides the Gandhi brother-sister duo, jammed the flyway’s exit for hours, insisting that the UP government allow them into the state so that they could drive to the Dalit girl’s village.
On Friday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered the suspension of Hathras SP Vikrant Vir and three other police officers for mishandling the alleged gang-rape case. He also ordered a narco-polygraph test to be conducted on everyone involved in the case. On Saturday Yogi ordered for CBI probe into the case as an impact of Rahul’s visit at the victim’s family.
With this historic journey to the victim’s family, Rahul Gandhi literally has started his journey towards prime ministership. It was perhaps over 15 years ago. Rahul Gandhi dressed in a white kurta pyjama walked into the Dhaba at Claridges Hotel with a friend. Instantaneously the heads spun around and the buzz of attention was ricocheting across the dining space. The man at the centre of attraction, incidentally, at that time had not even formally entered into politics.
As Salman Khurshid put it, Rahul is an idealist, something some people consider a disqualification for a mass leader; he is a hardcore professional, something that some people believe sits uneasy with the malleability needed for the rough and tumble of politics; he has clear likes and dislikes for ideas and people, something that people used to politicians who are everything to everyone do not understand. The unrelenting attacks on Narendra Modi and the RSS made some leaders uneasy about taking on the popular mood. At one gathering of intellectuals suggesting more diplomatic alternatives he asked as only he can, “Why? Are you afraid of the RSS?” His steadfastness and political fortitude showed in his response to the Scindia and Pilot episodes. In the world of compromises, he is loath to depart from principle. Some of his uncompromising democratic positions, like the Youth Congress elections, made dyed in the wool old hands nervous. Once India tires of being told it is deprived by the ‘other’ and inevitably returns to collective destiny, it will discover the need for Rahul. The only question that remains is whether this happens naturally or will require strategic steering. The truth is that no party has figured this out as yet. Many are hoping that the fruit of change in public mood will fall in their lap like in the past, but politics has transformed considerably to assume that. The tree needs to be shaken and from the record Rahul is the only public figure to be attempting to do that.
Any honest person will admit that contemporary politics in India is surreal. There is public approval of vigilante justice and crowd lynchings, criminals use crime to secure political power and then use power to subvert justice, botched governance is being proclaimed as high accomplishment, and inexplicable military ambiguity is being brandished as unprecedented success. Audacity of the political class is the new norm, while dissent and public protests are being painted in dark shades. Enforcement agencies are unselfconsciously becoming dramatis personae of the drama of political vendetta, while disguised and open defiance of India’s composite culture has become entrenched in the landscape.
Rahul Gandhi is honest; as a political leader looking for the true values of democracy across the nation. His commitment to liberal democracy is second to none, but as we learnt in the economic competition with China, democracy has its own timeline for development and growth. It is the very time that Congress is taking to shake itself free of the shock of two consecutive defeats that will give it a sustainable thrust for the future. Many of us in the Congress continue to have faith in the proposition that the future will not only include Rahul, but will be substantially shaped by him. His detractors and ambivalent well-wishers will just have to understand that he will write his own script and pick his own timeline.
It is this mystique of the Nehru-Gandhis which disconcerts his detractors. He draws crowds from Pathankot to Pathanamthita cutting across religious, language, caste and economic divides. No matter how much divisiveness is injected into the body politic, there is always the enduring appeal of the discovery of India through the Nehruvian lens. The voices which are making demands that Rahul Gandhi stop running the Congress Party are engaged in a desperate and manipulative ruse for the Nehru-Gandhi family to disengage from governance. There are even respectable but hopelessly naïve voices like that of Ramachandra Guha unable to gauge the politics beyond the academia.
Dynasticism is another tag sought to be attached to Rahul Gandhi to question legitimacy. This is inaccurate labeling and an incorrect assessment of the trajectory of a political leader. Quite unlike many dynastic professions, from law to the movies, a dynast in politics has to win elections. Rahul Gandhi is a dynast who won his seat in the Lok Sabha and continues to be the focal and rallying point of the party.
Democracy involves the competition of ideas vying for legitimacy and acceptance in the political space. The relevance of Rahul Gandhi in India’s politics is illustrated from the two tweets which went unheeded and deliberately ignored. On 12 February 2020 he tweeted, “the corona virus is an extremely serious threat to our people and every economy. My sense is the government is not taking this threat seriously”. There was a chorus of contrived outrage in the ruling party’s concentric circles of its power structure. 7 months on, the pandemic is on a rampage with 4.37 million cases and 73000 deaths and is showing no signs of abating. On 17 March, Rahul Gandhi once again tweeted about the consequential economic consequences of the pandemic and warned, “tsunami is going to hit our economy in coming weeks, Govt needs to take measures”. This was ignored by the media and the policy makers. In 6 months, the statistics now reveal the 24% contraction of the GDP and the consequent large scale ravaging of the economy.
The enduring importance of Rahul Gandhi is clear from a study of his twitter account followed by 16 million users. His tweets are a relentless pursuit and engagement with the nuts and bolts of governance. The issues raised deal with the dangers posed by the rapidly advancing Covid, of the sliding GDP, unemployment, the students forced to take exams, the common man, the plight of the agricultural and rural population ravaged by demonetization and the unheeded pandemic, the industry, middle classes, affordable medical care, and so it goes. He is forever and steadfastly recalibrating and bringing into focus the real issues.
Rahul Gandhi is not affected by the contrived distractions of the loud and garrulous on television, wrestling on make believe and chimerical issues. His obsession with the economy and the bread and butter issues is but natural. For he is after all, an M.Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge. Despite the unfair disparagements, he chooses not to wear his academic qualification up his sleeve. Instead, he is comfortable in the sartorial simplicity of his white kurta and pyjama, as he continues his battle of ideas in the trenches and the fields of India.
At every political challenge, though it is inside party or as a politician, Rahul Gandhi consistently showed a true leadership quality. When the congress failed in general elections, he takes responsibility and move on. And he never quit mainstream politics even he faced continuous attacks from the Indian media, which have already been leaned to the right wing politics led by the RSS. He keeps talking for the people of India. And he is never afraid of criticizing the inhuman anti-people stands by the central government. Even he has got many opportunities to politicize social issues, he kept smart politics on and never chooses the way the BJP did. That makes him different from other political leaders as well. This journey has already become a history in Indian politics. In many recent political issues, Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, did not waste his time attacking Mayawati and Yadav. He chose to focus on Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh. But the historic march by both of them along with other congressmen has already given hope to the Indian people who are fed up with the central government stands against the common people and promoting corporate fabric. A tremendous change in the Indian people’s hope has escalated true is the best result of Rahul Gandhi’s historic visit to Hathras.
Reference:
Salman Khurshid. India will soon discover its need for Rahul Gandhi; The Week, 2020 August 16.
The Parliament has passed 2 farmer bills in 20th September. The monsoon session has witnessed some dramatic movements. Harsimrat Kaur, the lone minister of BJP’s long standing ally Shiromani Akalidal has quit the cabinet opposing the farmer bills, The opposition and many farmer unions have threatened to protest till the controversial bills are withdrawn. The indefinite protests are going on in states like Punjab, Haryana etc. What exactly these bills are? Why is this controversial? Come let’s have a check.
Here are these three bills:
The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) bill 2020. Which provides the opening up of agricultural sale and marketing outside the notified APMC ‘s (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee). As per this bill, a license is not required to trade in farm produce, anyone can buy directly from farmers. These provisions forbid state APMC ‘s from collecting the market fee, cess or levy taxation for trade outside APMC’s. It is evident that there will be no barrier for interstate trade in the forthcoming future. Simply, the opening up of a wide competitive market.
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) agreement on price assurance and farm service bill, 2020 – A farmer can enter into contract with a corporate directly at a mutually agreed price accordingly. Which will bring uniformity into contractual farming rules and State APMC’s act.
The Govt has decided to remove cereals, pulses, edible oil, oil seeds, onion and Potatoes from the list of essential commodities with the amendment of Essential Commodities Act. That is providing uninterrupted provisions for production, storage and distribution of these goods.
We might all feel that these are pro farmer ordinances which will empower farmers to enter into farming agreements with private players prior to the production for sale of agri- produce. Really! Are these a revolutionary move in the agricultural scenario which is going to bring due independence to the farming community? Go to the deeper sense of provisions; aren’t these bills are really bulldozers having the capacity enough to crush the small and marginal farmers under its giant corporate wheels? Come let’s have a critical analysis!
Every state has its own APMC’s. The agricultural market is controlled by APMCs. It is the local markets under them that set the prices, license the traders, provide the necessary infrastructure and provide the opportunity for the farmers to sell their produce with the help of intermediaries. By preventing the state Govt from levying any kind of fees or Surcharges, the central govt is opening up all kinds of opportunities to the corporates and pave the way for the gradual disappearance of APMC’s in the competition for they could come up with more adorable attractive offers to web farmers as how Jio did in the beginning, the so called strategic movement to erase competition in the market; the commission agents will be rendered jobless. The central Govt is thereby preventing the State govt from adopting appropriate regulations and policies for each state’s agricultural sector. This legislation may be a prelude to the abolition of the Minimum support price and the chopping down of poor farmer’s negotiation power.
By implementing contract farming, farmers will be forced cultivate as per the will of large-scale corporates. Farmers avail finances from the commission agents to sow the crop and return it when the product reaches the market. Poor farmers who lose all public sector assistance in seed and fertilizers procurement will have to rely on corporates. When sales do not have to depend on local markets, profit will become only motive for choosing crops. Despite being in Domestic fields priority will be given to export potentials and Urban markets. Once the private grain markets are established the traditional grain markets will become history. There will be a loss of agricultural employment in rural areas with the advent of contract farming for corporate companies can create a centralized work force which will reflect in the urban migration and a exacerbation of current imbalance. Large land owners, who now lease land to small farmers will prompted to give their farm land to corporates to make more profit will exacerbated the prevailing imbalance in the ownership of agricultural land in India. Small farmers and agri laborers will be eliminated at once. Although the Price Assurance Bill promises to protect farmers from exploitation of crop prices, the bill makes no mention of a mechanism to ensure this price.
With the removal of pulses, potatoes, edible oils etc. from the list of essential commodities, corporates will be able to stockpile them in such a way that they can determine the market price as they wish. This can lead to artificial shortages and large-scale inflation in agricultural products. With the amendment of ECA, international monopolies will take over the Indian agricultural sector. In other words, the Modi govt is legalizing hoarding and black market. Corporates with the technology and godowns to store products for a long time will make the harvest of the crop, the season, the cycles and the price difference all myths. Corporate agricultural production driven by rich consumers and exports threatens India’s food security. The rural people are marginalized even now in the face of rising food consumption. Corporate farming derives its export profit from such artificially reduced domestic consumption.
The state generally has the sole right to legislate on matters stated in the State List of theConstitution. Agriculture and Market scheduled on the 14th and 28th list of state, was legislated by the Central Government without the permission of the State Governments is truly an encroachment to the Federal system and the mere representation of the distraction of Cooperative federalism. The removal of marketing fees will significantly affect state finance when the state finances are going through the worst possible situation and such attitudes from the central govt are worrisome at a time when concerns are mounting over the non-receipt of GST compensation.
From now on, the remuneration of the farmer and the price to be paid by the consumer will be decided by the international and domestic monopolies. Landowners in India will become their mere tenants. The government will be just spectators. With the shift away of Govt from food procurement, public distribution and systems like FCI will disappear. This legislation will pose a serious challenge to Kerala, which is dependent on other states for food. What the government is actually doing here is washing away all responsibilities by throwing farmers into the free market to big corporates. This law, which eliminates price controls and support prices for agricultural products, is intended to help private monopolies. With this, the legal protection that the farmers used to get is going to disappear. Contract farming is a legislation to convert farmers into food producers at corporate prices.
It is saying that, if there is a market outside the APMC there will be no intermediaries and if it is true that the loss on the farmer’s dividend will be reduced then it should happen in the case of milk, Sugarcane and Poultry farming. But that did not happen. Bihar is a state that limits the working of APMC which made far reaching and unbearable consequences in the lives of farmers. They were forced to sell their products at a rate 25% less than the MSP that was provided earlier. In Gujarat, Pepsi tried it’s hand in agriculture getting in touch with farmers throughout the state only to end up in court following issues regarding production and profit. Can’t we see the irony here!
The existing agricultural production and marketing system in India is not that perfect now. But, the move to hand over the agricultural sector to corporates In its name needs to be strongly opposed. There are only 7000 Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees in India. In most areas, farmers do not have the means to sell their produce and get a fair price. Co-operatives of farmers and agricultural workers and their benefits are in high demand at present. And the breakdown of “Landlord relations“ one of the root causes of the agrarian crisis in India. This bill eliminates all such possibilities. What is more inevitable at this time is ” to establish farmers market with adequate infrastructure and supporting large villages and small towns to enable the farmer to bring his/her produce and freely market the same – (Congress Manifesto )” other than transferring of power from APMC to Private bodies.
