Farmer Protests

Slamming the Centre, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said farmers are pleading for justice because the Modi government "betrayed them again and again", and asserted that the tillers' right to raise their voice should not be taken away from them. Kharge asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to why farmers have to come to Delhi's doorstep again and again for justice. "Today, when you will be on a tour to Haryana and Rajasthan, I hope that you will definitely try to understand the struggle of the farmer who provides food to the nation. Farmers are pleading for justice because your government has betrayed them again and again," Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X. "The betrayal of not doubling farmers' income by 2022, the betrayal of not implementing Input Cost + 50% MSP as per the Swaminathan report, and the betrayal of forming a committee to give legal status to MSP but not acting on it," he said, slamming the Modi government. Kharge claimed that there was neither ..

Tensions escalated at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border, where police used tear gas to block farmers attempting to march to Delhi

The Congress on Friday reiterated its support for farmers' demands and said their protests have received a "huge booster dose" from no less a person than Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. The opposition party's assertion came ahead of a scheduled march by a group of farmers to Delhi from their protest site at the Shambhu border on the Punjab and Haryana border. Also, the remarks comes days after Dhankhar, speaking at a ceremony to mark the centenary of ICAR-CIRCOT in Mumbai, said, "Agriculture minister, I request you to please tell me, what was promised to the farmer? Why was the promise not fulfilled? What should we do to fulfil the promise? There was a movement last year, there is a movement this year, too." Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh noted farmers are marching to Parliament Friday. "Their protests received a huge booster dose from no less a person than the Vice President and Hon'ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha himself," Ramesh said in his po

Protesting farmers, carrying flags of their unions and the tricolour, managed to break a barricade but were stopped by heavy security personnel with concrete blocks and barbed wires at Shambhu border

Farmers protest today: Over 100 farmers are set to march towards Parliament at 1 pm on Friday; central paramilitary forces deployed on the Haryana side of the border

Farmers will resume their march from Shambhu border today to Parliament, demanding legal MSP amid tight security and barricading at Delhi's borders

Farmers have demanded MSP guarantees, Swaminathan reforms, pensions, debt waivers, the 2013 Land Act, and compensation for 2020-21 agitation deaths

Tikait said the government should tell the farmers, what should they do about stubble

Farmers, millers, and arhtiyas in Punjab will hold a statewide 'chakka jam' on Sunday between 12PM to 3 pm, protesting delays in paddy procurement and lifting, causing traffic disruptions

The outcome of the state polls, especially in Haryana and Maharashtra, analysts believe, are also important from 'farm politics' viewpoint, and how the government deal with the farmer's demands

Senior Punjab BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal has said that he had immediately spoken to his party high command after Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut's remarks on the farmers' protests and expressed his displeasure. Grewal said that he had spoken over phone to Union Minister and BJP president J P Nadda in this regard. Kangana, the MP from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, had recently posted a clip of her interview with Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar in which she suggested that a "Bangladesh-like situation" could have erupted in India but for the country's strong leadership. She then alleged that bodies were hanging and rapes were taking place during the farmers' protests against the now-repealed three farm laws. "The first thing is that just by becoming a MP, one does not become a leader...connecting with (party's) ideology does not happen in one day. I have been with the BJP for more than 35 years," Grewal told reporters here on Sunday. "When she said (made the remarks), I immediately reacted and .

Farmers of the Cauvery delta areas on Sunday staged a protest here seeking steps to prevent the flow of surplus water from the river into the sea, and demanded that barrages and a dam be constructed instead. Led by farmer leader P R Pandian, the crop cultivators demanded that the state government construct a barrage every 5 km across Kollidam river (the northern distributary of the Cauvery) so that surplus Cauvery water would not drain into the sea. They also urged that a dam be constructed at Rasimanal near Hogenakkal. Citing factors such as ground water depletion in areas close to the banks of the Kollidam river, they demanded that the government build multiple barrages. "We will not allow Cauvery water (surplus) draining into sea," they said, raising a slogan to oppose Karnataka's proposal to build the Mekedatu dam on its side.

CISF constable said that her mother was among the farmers holding a sit-in protest against the farm laws, which now have been repealed

Samyukt Kisan Morcha wrote an open letter on Sunday to the Election Commission of India urging to ensure "free and transparent" counting. Counting for the seven phases of Lok Sabha elections will be conducted on June 4. In the open letter, the SKM, which had spearheaded the protests against the now-withdrawn farm laws, said they are apprehensive about tampering in the counting process. "On behalf of the farmers across India, we wish to bring to your kind attention our apprehension on any eventuality of tampering with the counting process - scheduled for June 4, 2024, to subvert the people's verdict to help the present regime to cling on power," the SKM said. "Unlike the past elections, the farmers of India had directly opposed the election campaign of the BJP against the gross betrayal in implementing the written agreement with SKM especially regarding MSP and loan waiver and to expose its corporate policies," they said. The SKM, a coalition of over forty Indian farmers' unions, s

BJP leader Anil Vij on Tuesday said that he had not given any order for firing on protesting farmers at the Khanauri border point in February but as he was the state home minister at that time he takes responsibility for the incident. Vij stated this after farmers stopped his car in village Panjokhara of Ambala Cantonment, where he had gone to campaign for BJP's Lok Sabha candidate Banto Kataria, and confronted him about the events that took place in February. The farmers told Vij that Shubhkaran Singh from Punjab was killed allegedly in police firing when farmers were protesting at the Khanauri border point in February during their "Delhi Chalo" march. "I was the Home Minister. I cannot escape from responsibility," Vij told the group of farmers. When a farmer asked if he had ordered the firing on farmers, Vij said, "I am not saying so, all I am saying is that I was the Home Minister at that time...." "Yes you can," Vij told a farmer at the site when he asked,"Should we get an FI

Farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha continued to sit on a rail track in Patiala district near the Punjab-Haryana border on Thursday, demanding release of three farmers arrested by the Haryana Police. With their protest continuing, the railway authorities, under the Ambala railway division, on Thursday said 53 more trains were cancelled, 12 were short-terminated and 23 were diverted. The disruption in rail movement was causing inconvenience to rail passengers. Farmers are demanding the release of three fellow farmers, including Navdeep Singh, who were arrested by the Haryana Police during the ongoing stir. They have said they will not end their protest until their fellow protesters are released. Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said their protest was going on. Ambala railway division, senior divisional commercial manager, Naveen Kumar said the movement of many trains have been affected because of the farmers' protest at

Farmer leader Naresh Tikait says his Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) openly supported the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but the party did not live up to their expectations after coming to power. Tikait lamented that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre did not acknowledge the "martyrdom" of around 750 farmers during a 13-month-long protest at Delhi's borders in 2020-21 and claimed that the saffron party "reeks of dictatorship". However, Tikait, the "Chaudhary" of the Balyan Khap of the influential Jat community in western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, said the BKU members are open to supporting any party's candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The BKU, part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM),? an umbrella body of farmers' unions, had participated in the major protests against the Centre in 2020-21 over the now-repealed agri-marketing laws. "The Bharatiya Kisan Union is a big organisation where every member has some relation or link with one or the other party. Some are relatives

The 2024 has been a different story. What changed?

Farmer activist Navdeep Singh Jalbera has been arrested by the Haryana Police in connection with an FIR registered during the farmers' "Delhi Chalo" protest last month. The development comes ahead of a gathering convened by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mukti Morcha (KMM) on Sunday to pay homage to Shubhkaran Singh (21), a farmer from Punjab's Bathinda who was killed in a clash with police at the Punjab-Haryana border on February 21. The Ambala Police arrested Jalbera from Mohali on Thursday. He was produced in a court that remanded him in the custody of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of the Haryana Police for two days. Police said Jalbera was arrested in connection with a case registered here on February 13 under various Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 307 (attempt to murder) and for assault on police personnel. Jalbera, a native of the eponymous village near Ambala, became famous as the "water-cannon man" for climbing atop a police water .

The European Union is on the brink of approving a major plan to fight climate change and better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc after protests from farmers and opposition from the biggest party in parliament led it to be diluted. The plan is a key part of the EU's European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world's most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets and make the bloc the global point of reference on all climate issues. The Nature Restoration plan has had a rough ride through the EU's complicated approval process, and a watered-down version will proceed to a final vote by the EU member states, where it is expected to survive. Today's vote to get the Nature Restoration Law over the finish line offers fresh hope for Europe's ability to combat the worst effects of climate change and biodiversity loss for decades to come," said Noor Yafai of the global environmental group The Nature Conservancy. Under the plan, member states would have to meet restoration targets f