Farm laws: Sonia calls for unity, discipline amidst 'worries' of opposition failure

By Our Representative
Close on the heels of the Supreme Court suspending the three farm laws and appointing a four-person committee to open dialogue with the Government of India and farmer leaders for finding a solution to the powerful resistance to them, 10 opposition parties came together on a civil society organisation (CSO) platform to express unanimous solidarity with the farmers’ struggle for the repeal of the laws.
Speaking at the CSO-sponsored virtual Janta Parliament’s kisan session with political representatives, political leaders agreed that a special Parliament meet should be convened to discuss legalisation of minimum support price (MSP) as well as other aspects of the current agrarian crisis.

A suggestion was made that two or three days could be set aside during the budget session, starting on January 29, exclusively for this. August last year, CSOs held six virtual Janata Parliament sessions, one of them being on agriculture.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who sent a message to the virtual Janta Parliament, insisted on the need for “unity, discipline and commitment” to combat forces that are "inflicting untold suffering on kisans and khet mazdoors" through the three laws.

Assuring that the Congress would take up the farmers’ issue at the upcoming Parliament session, she said, the Congress-led state assemblies “have already passed laws that reject the farms laws passed by the Central government.” She added, “The Constitution permits this. We will continue to press for their approval according to Constitutional provisions. Undoubtedly, the Prime Minister will place hurdles on our way but we will persevere.”
Commenting on the formation of the Supreme Court committee to open a dialogue on the farm laws, speakers at the Janta Parliament wondered why shouldn’t the government go in for implementing decisions of previous committees. A report already by the Swaminathan Committee already exists. The government needs to implement it report.
K Raju and Rajeev Gowda of the Indian National Congress said, the party supports the demand for a legal MSP that is backed by procurement. Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI-ML asserted, there should be repeal and not a pause of the farms laws. He added, the public distribution system must be universalised to ensure food security as well as higher procurement of crops by the government.
D Raja of CPI said that the real purpose of the three farm laws is to serve the corporates. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of the Trinamool Congress underlined, Parliament was undermined while passing the three laws, adding, agriculture is essentially a state subject and these laws intrude upon the states' jurisdiction.

Journalist-activist P Sainath pleaded for formation of Save Farmer, Save Nation committees to organise ground-level boycott of products by corporates that harm farmers

Prof Manoj K Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), one of the parties that has gone to the Supreme Court over the farm laws, regretted, governments around the world have taken advantage of the pandemic, adding, the opposition parties have not done enough as they have still not got out of their comfort zones to resist the various autocratic measures taken by the government. He announced, on January 30, in Bihar, RJD and other opposition parties will be forming a human chain to oppose the farm laws.
Dr D Ravikumar, MP from the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi party said due to the way that the Parliament was organised during the pandemic, there wasn’t sufficient time to discuss the farm laws, adding, some of them were getting time to address the Parliament at midnight. Ghanshyam Tiwari of the Samajwadi Party added, Amazon and other online marts will soon be selling farmers’ produce along with Adanis and Ambanis at the backend.
Sitaram Yechury of CPI(M) said that his party stands with the farmers’ position to not talk to any committee. He asked, if consultations are being held now, what was the need to pass these laws in a truncated session of Parliament without a proper vote? He said that the government – and not any committee – must speak to the farmers and all other stakeholders and then bring any new laws.
Former member of Sonia Gandhi-formed National Advisory Council under UPA-1, Aruna Roy, a Right to Information activist, asked political parties present at the Janta Parliament to spread awareness about the three farm laws via their district level committees, adding, political parties should ask the Gram Sabhas to pass a resolution to repeal the three farm laws on January 26.

Journalist-activist P Sainath, who specialises on rural issues, pleaded for the formation of ‘Save Farmer, Save Nation’ committees and organise a ground-level boycott of the products by corporates which are directly harming the farmers.

Comments

Anonymous said…

It is difficult to understand how the B team (Sonia bahen) of the BJP is asking for opposition unity

January 14, 2021

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Examples of support to Hindu temples, scriptures, saints by 'Muslim' rulers galore

Siya Ram coin issued by Akbar By Bharat Dogra* At a time when the country as well as the world are passing through very difficult times leading to more urgent need for strengthening national unity for meeting several big challenges ahead, unfortunately disputes relating to religious places have been allowed to raise their ugly head once again. It is well-realized by now by many people that it is not historical facts but narrow considerations of political gain and spreading of fanatic ideas of intolerance which are behind such mischief, but due to the increasing threat of mob violence and patronage available at higher levels to groups spreading intolerance many people are reluctant to openly and fearlessly express their views. Hence there is urgent need for broad-based peace committees with wider social support to spread the message of communal harmony and to appeal against the dangers of spreading false messages regarding places of worship which can ultimate

Gyanvapi case: Use of 'illegal' lawfare to keep the communal pot simmering

By Venkatesh Narayanan, Bobby Ramakant, Manoj Sarang* With a steady drumbeat of bad news for the lives of ordinary citizens -- inflation at a multi-year high , rupee at an all-time low , negative job creation and when all forward indicators as seen by industry leaders point to recessionary clouds on the horizon , what’s a serially-incompetent government to do? Dust out their time-tested-citizen-distraction playbook. The Gyanvapi-Masjid case is all of this -- as a weapon of mass distraction. This zeitgeist of our times is best captured by a recent opinion piece : "The idea is to keep the pot on a perpetual boil, simmering at the top, whirling feverishly beneath. A restless society forever living precariously on the precipice arouses distrst, uneasiness, fear and discomfort, That is a toxic panoply for manufacturing rage, which can then be effortlessly mobilized at short notice. BJP is creating an eco-system of real-time instant delivery of hate-mongers. That is how we are sudde

Targeting mosques, churches: 'Roadmap' for 2025, RSS' centenary year?

416 years old Our Lady of Health Church, Sancoale, Goa By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* Fascists use manipulative strategies aimed at whipping up sympathy and support from the majority community, to which they normally ‘belong’. They do so in a variety of insidious and subtle ways. In the past few months, they have gone overboard in their efforts to denigrate and demonize minorities in India, particularly Muslims and Christians. They have spewed hate and divisiveness through their venomous speeches; incited people to violence and have effectively used officialdom to further their vested interests. The results are there for all to see: greater polarisation of the majority community in a country which prided itself for its pluralism and diversity. Their meticulously planned agenda is in order to gain absolute power of the country in the 2024 national elections. More so it is also a roadmap towards 2025 when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will complete one hundred years of its existence.

Upholding labour rights, Nehruvian scientific temper, Rajni Patel opposed Emergency

By Harsh Thakor* Rajni Patel, who died 40 years ago, whatever his flaws, had one great quality: his human touch to offer selfless service and ability to galvanise or influence human beings from all walks of life. Few people would ever go out of the way to help someone or serve as selflessly without aim of personal gain. Rajni championed Nehruvian secular ideas and scientific temper. As a master in public relations he revealed utmost humility. As a barrister, he never appeared against the trade unions or workers. A Fabien Socialist he opposed liberal capitalism and radical socialism. Unlike most lawyers, he did not succumb to the lure of amassing wealth. Rajni was born in Sirsa, in Gujarat, on the very day Gandhi set foot on Indian soil, on 9th January, 1915. He gained his baptism through one of Gandhi's speeches calling for the boycott of foreign goods, which was the virtual turning point of his life. Rajni toed Gandhi to organise boycott of foreign goods. Rajni was able to cros

This varsity succumbed to extra-academic mobocracy, 'ignored' Hindutva archives

By Shamsul Islam* Open letter to Sharda University vice-chancellor Sub: Discarding a Question on Linkages of Hindutva with Nazism/Fascism is blatant Academic Dishonesty! Dear Professor Sibaram Khara Saheb, Namaskaar! According to your esteemed University’s portal: “The name of University, 'Sharda' is synonymous to 'Goddess of knowledge and learning-Saraswati'. She is identified with 'veena', an Indian musical instrument and the ‘lotus’, where she resides. The lotus in our logo symbolizes the seat of learning that the University is created for. "Variety of colours signify the variety of disciplines the university offers and the overlap between petals creating new colours demonstrate the ethos of collaboration between students and teachers of different programme, nationality, creed and colour working towards creating new knowledge…the University's cherished mission to provide education beyond boundaries and to facilitate the students and faculty to achie

Whither climate goal? Increasing reliance on coal 'likely to worsen' India's power crisis

By Shankar Sharma* Recent news articles, How to shock-proof India’s power sector and Power minister points finger at states for worsening electricity crisis , have highlighted a few current problems for the ongoing power sector issues as in April 2022. However, there is a lot more to it than a few temporary solutions as indicated in the articles. It should also be emphasised that it is techno-economically impossible to completely shock-proof a highly complex and geographically wide-spread vast power network, such as the one in India, which is only getting more and more complex with the passage of each year due to some irrational policies/ practices in the sector. A business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, wherein more and more of conventional technology power plants, including coal power plants, will be added in the near future, will also necessitate the increased complexity in the integrated national grid, and as a result the instances of power shortage/ disruptions can only escalate for

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

A former Modi ally, Prashant Kishor wanted to enter Congress 'on contract, as trader'

By Anand Sahay* The Congress Party and the election campaigns specialist Prashant Kishor, whose company has done strategic communications for a host of political parties across ideology, should both count themselves lucky that they could not reach an agreement for Kishor to join the party. News reports suggest that the Congress rejected Kishor’s terms. This is not wholly unexpected. People join a party because they are attracted to it, and wish to serve it in any capacity that the party may see fit. But that isn’t Kishor at all. He gave the impression of entering into a contract, as a trader might. If news reports are to be believed, he sought freedom to report directly to party chief Sonia Gandhi, and sought untrammeled control over party communications. When such ideas did not find favour, the consultant withdrew. It is clear he has no particular love for the Congress, and its ideas, ideology and politics. In contrast, look at the key personae in G-23. They

Haven't done a good deed, inner soul is cursing me as sinner: Aurangzeb's last 'will'

Counterview Desk The Tomb of Aurangzeb, the last of the strong Mughal emperors, located in Khuldabad, Aurangabad district, Maharashtra, has this epitaph inscribed on it: "Az tila o nuqreh gar saazand gumbad aghniyaa! Bar mazaar e maa ghareebaan gumbad e gardun bas ast" (the rich may well construct domes of gold and silver on their graves. For the poor folks like me, the sky is enough to shelter my grave).

Counterview

Search This Blog