NEW DELHI: The farmers protesting against the three central farm laws on the Delhi borders on Tuesday decided to organise meetings in poll-bound West Bengal to ask people not to vote for those who were “snatching their livelihood”. In another related development, a Delhi court directed the Delhi Police to hand over FIR copies of arrest and other documents of climate activist Disha Ravi to her.
Here are the key developments:
1. Farmer leaders said they will hold meetings in West Bengal as well. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a farmers' "mahapanchayat" at Garhi Sampla in Rohtak, the peasant leaders said like many other states, they will tour the state shortly. Replying to a question, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said, "We will tour the entire nation, we will also go to West Bengal. Farmers in West Bengal are also facing problems. They are not getting good rates for their crops." Addressing the "mahapanchayat", he said, "We will hold panchayats across the country. We will go to Gujarat, Maharashtra, other places.... We will go to West Bengal and hold a big meeting there too. The farmers of West Bengal are facing some issues with the state government as well as the Centre. We will hold a panchayat there as well." Asked if the visit would be connected to the upcoming Assembly polls in West Bengal, Tikait told reporters, "That is not the case, we will go there in connection with farmers' issues." However, Haryana BKU chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni, during his address to the "mahapanchayat", appealed to people not to cast votes for anyone from panchayat to Parliament if they do not help the protesting farmers and support their agitation. "Do not give your vote to them, you may give it to anyone else," he said.
2. Farmers' union Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is leading the agitation against new agri laws, demanded immediate dismissal of Haryana ministers JP Dalal and Anil Vij alleging them to be "anti-farmer". Haryana agriculture minister Dalal on Saturday kicked up a row with his remark over farmers' death at various protest sites, saying they would have died even if they had stayed back home. Dalal was responding to a reporter's query in Bhiwani over the "death of 200 farmers". Haryana Home Minister Vij also courted controversy on Monday when he said whoever harbours seeds of anti-nationalism in their minds should destroy them. The minister made the comment while referring to climate activist Disha Ravi's arrest. "Whoever harbours seeds of anti-nationalism in their mind, they have to completely destroy it, be it #Disha_Ravi or anyone else," Vij had tweeted. Demanding the immediate dismissal of "anti-farmer ministers" like Dalal and Vij, farmer leader Darshan Pal said, "Mahapanchayats in Haryana are adopting resolutions to this effect and have also sent their resolution copies to the chief minister and governor of Haryana."
3. Accusing the opposition of “false propaganda” against the new agri-marketing legislation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that those who had made laws for bringing in foreign firms are now creating a scare among farmers over local companies. While laying the foundation stone for a statue of warrior-king Suheldev in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich, Modi also said his government is trying to rectify the “mistakes” of the earlier regimes that had failed to honour deserving leaders. Addressing the event through video conference, the prime minister defended the new farm laws, saying the reforms will benefit the small and marginal farmers. Farmers themselves have begun exposing those involved in “false propaganda” about them, he said. The prime minister said farmers in Uttar Pradesh have been getting encouraging results after the enactment of the new laws. "The entire country has seen that those who made laws for bringing in foreign companies in the farm sector are now scaring farmers in the name of local companies,” he said, without elaborating.
4. A Delhi court has said the law of sedition cannot be invoked to quieten the disquiet under the pretence of muzzling miscreants. Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana made the observation while granting bail to two persons - Devi Lal Burdak and Swaroop Ram - arrested by Delhi Police earlier this month for allegedly committing sedition and spreading rumours by posting fake video on Facebook during ongoing farmers' protest. The court said that the law of sedition was a powerful tool in the hands of the state to maintain peace and order in the society. “However, it cannot be invoked to quieten the disquiet under the pretence of muzzling the miscreants. Evidently, law proscribes any act which has a tendency to create disorder or disturbance of public peace by resort to violence," the judge said in an order passed on February 15.
5. The Indian High Commission in London has issued an open letter to a British member of Parliament who has been vocal over the issue of farmer protests in India and related arrests of activists. Claudia Webbe is the member of Parliament from the Opposition Labour Party for Leicester East, a significant British Indian constituency in eastern England. She had endorsed an e-petition calling for a UK government statement over the protests in India, after it crossed the 100,000 signatures threshold to be considered for a debate in the Westminster Hall of the House of Commons. Most recently, she used her social media to demand the release of activists arrested in India in the “toolkit” case. The Indian mission responded with an open letter inviting her to convey any apprehensions on behalf of the British citizens of her constituency to the High Commission directly. “We would have been able to comprehensively and in detail provide clarifications to assuage the concerns of your constituents with regard to the recent path-breaking Indian Farm Laws against which a small section of India's farming community has been protesting,” reads the letter.
6. Union minister Smriti Irani has said the central government is committed to the welfare of farmers and has increased the minimum support price for jute from Rs 2,400 in 2014-15 to Rs 4,225 in 2020-21. The minister for textiles and women and child development called upon farmers to use certified seeds to increase their income and productivity, an official statement said. She also urged the farmers to contribute to the country through diversified jute and technical textile products. Virtually inaugurating a workshop organised at ICAR-CRIJAF Institute at Barrackpore, West Bengal on Monday, Irani said the ICARE Initiative which started in 2015 with only about 60 MT certified jute seeds and 20,000 farmers got a remarkable leap in just one and half years and the certified jute seeds distribution increased to over 600 MT in 2017. She informed that so far, the government has supported 2.60 lakh farmers under the ICARE programme.
7. A Delhi court here directed Delhi Police to hand over to 21-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi a copy of the FIR and other documents related to her arrest in connection with allegedly being involved in sharing a "toolkit" on social media on the farmers' protest and allowed her to speak to her family. Besides the FIR, the court also directed the police to provide her the copies of the arrest memo and remand paper which was placed to seek her custodial interrogation. The court also permitted her to get warm clothes, masks and books. Chief metropolitan magistrate Pankaj Sharma allowed Ravi to speak with her family members over phone for 15 minutes a day and meet with her lawyer for 30 minutes a day, while she is in police custody.
8. Environmental activist Shantanu Muluk, a suspect in a case registered by Delhi Police in connection with the toolkit shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg about the ongoing farmers' protest, got temporary anticipatory bail from the Bombay high court. The high court on Wednesday will pass its order on another suspect, advocate Nikita Jacob's similar plea. Justice Vibha Kankanwadi of the Aurangabad bench of the HC granted Muluk, resident of Beed in central Maharashtra, ten days' transit anticipatory bail to enable him to apply for protection before the appropriate court in Delhi. Muluk and Jacob had on Monday approached the high court separately seeking transit anticipatory bail, after a Delhi court issued non-bailable warrants against them. According to Delhi Police, the duo were involved in preparing the toolkit document and were in direct touch with "pro- Khalistani elements".
9. Activists of the National Students' Union of India, the student's wing of the Congress, staged a demonstration in Bengaluru against the arrest of city-based environment activist Disha Ravi in the 'toolkit' case. They raised slogans and demanded her release. The Left-wing "All India Students' Association" had on Monday staged a similar protest here. Holding placards and wearing black masks, the agitators raised slogans, "Free Disha Ravi". Their placards read, "Standing for Farmers is not sedition", and "When injustice becomes law, Resistance becomes duty". A protest was organised in the city on Monday as well, where historian Ramachandra Guha too had participated. Guha said people are being persecuted for their views. The Congress Karnataka unit chief DK Shivakumar condemned the arrest and said India was becoming an authoritarian state, which the citizens must realise.
10. Intensifying its probe in the toolkit case, the Delhi Police sought details from video conferencing platform Zoom on the participants of the January 11 meeting by a pro-Khalistan group, while investigators were also looking into the funding aspect, sources said. The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) sent a notice to the city police on the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi in the case and sought a report by Friday on issues like why she was allegedly not provided a lawyer of her choice when produced before a court. However, Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava denied any lapse. "Disha Ravi's arrest has been made in accordance with the law which doesn't differentiate between a 22-year-old or a 50-year-old," he told reporters at an event while dismissing criticism of the police action against Ravi. Sources said police are also likely to approach WhatsApp seeking details of the 'International Farmers' Strike' group created in December last year, they said.
(With agency inputs)