NEW DELHI: Thousands of Indian farmers marked the 100th day of protests against controversial agricultural laws on Saturday by blocking a major expressway on the outskirts of New Delhi and expanding their campaign in five states facing local elections.
Tens of thousands of farmers from the largely rural states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have been camped on the outskirts of the capital for three months to protest against three laws passed in September.
Farmers say the laws will leave them poorer and at the mercy of corporations by allowing the unregulated entry of private companies in the farming sector, which employs over 50 percent of India’s population.
Hundreds of cars and tractors blocked the eastern peripheral expressway of New Delhi for several hours as farmers vowed to continue their protest against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“We will continue the protests till the government withdraws the anti-farmer laws,” Sunil Pradhan, of the Indian Farmers Union, told Arab News.
“The government does not realize how angry people are with the arrogance of the BJP regime, which ignores the discontent of the people,” he said.
Farmers fear the new laws will usher in the privatization of traditional agriculture markets and lead to market-driven pricing of produce, wiping out the minimum support price (MSP) that the government fixes every year for some products.
The government held 10 rounds of talks with farmers to resolve the issue and offered to postpone the implementation of the new laws for 15 months in order to reach an agreement.
However, the protesters have rejected the offer, demanding that the laws be revoked altogether.
“Asking the government to withdraw the law is not right,” BJP spokesperson Sudesh Verma told Arab News. “The government has shown a willingness to accommodate, but vested interests are not allowing negotiation.”
He added: “If the old system is better, it will stay. Innocent farmers are being lured into opposing the laws through the creation of false fears. MSP is not at stake in these three legislations,” he said.
Verma said that the anti-BJP mobilization in five states holding regional elections this and next month is proof that the farmers have political goals.
“This shows that the real agenda is politics. They should know that the people won’t appreciate it,” he said.
On Friday, Samyukta Kisan Morcha, or the Joint Farmers Group, a conglomerate of farming organizations at the forefront of the protest, announced an anti-BJP campaign in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry — all of which go to the polls in coming weeks.
“On Friday, we held the first rally of farmers in Kolkata,” Ashutosh Mishra, of the All India Farmers’ Struggle Coordination Committee, told Arab News.
“Our stand is clear: We don’t want to support any political party, but we are telling voters not to vote for the BJP which has turned against its own people,” he said.
The farmers’ campaign is expected to pose a challenge to the political dominance of the BJP.
“The movement will have a deep-rooted impact,” Urmilesh Urmil, a New Delhi-based political analyst, told Arab News. “This movement has raised political consciousness among farmers and this will pose a problem for the ruling party.”
He added: “From the beginning, the government was not keen to engage farmers and wanted to let the movement die its own death. But I think the government is making a mistake.
“At a time when mainstream political parties lack the strength to challenge the BJP behemoth, the farmers’ movement can create a new consciousness among people at large.”
Indian farmers step up rallies ahead of local polls
https://arab.news/meedd
Indian farmers step up rallies ahead of local polls
- Challenge to ruling party grows as thousands mark 100th day of protest by blocking New Delhi expressway
- The farmers have remained undeterred even after violence erupted on Jan. 26 during clashes with police
UK to expand submarine fleet as defense review calls for ‘warfighting readiness’
- The new submarines will be a model jointly developed by the UK, US and Australia under the security partnership known as AUKUS
LONDON: Britain will increase the size of its nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet, the government has announced ahead of a defense review expected to say the country must invest billions to be ready and equipped to fight a modern war.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, like other leaders across Europe, is racing to rebuild his country’s defense capabilities after US President Donald Trump told the continent it needed to take more responsibility for its own security.
Monday’s Strategic Defense Review will call for Britain’s armed forces to move to a state of “warfighting readiness,” spelling out changing security threats and which defense technologies are needed to counter them.
“We know that threats are increasing and we must act decisively to face down Russian aggression,” defense minister John Healey said in a statement.
Britain will build up to 12 of its next-generation attack submarines, which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional non-nuclear weapons, to replace the current fleet of seven from the late 2030s, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Britain operates a separate fleet of submarines armed with nuclear weapons. The government for the first time said a pre-existing program to develop a new nuclear warhead to replace the model used by that fleet would cost 15 billion pounds.
“With new state-of-the-art submarines patrolling international waters and our own nuclear warhead program on British shores, we are making Britain secure at home and strong abroad,” Healey added.
The new submarines will be a model jointly developed by the UK, US and Australia under the security partnership known as AUKUS.
REVERSE DECLINE
In light of Trump’s decision to upend decades of strategic reliance on the US by Europe, Starmer has already committed to increasing Britain’s defense spending in an attempt to reverse a long-term decline in its military capability.
He has promised to raise defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027 and target a 3 percent level over the longer term. On Sunday he warned Britain must be ready to fight and win a war against states with advanced military forces.
In the days running up to the Strategic Defense Review, which Starmer commissioned shortly after taking office last July, the government has announced plans to spend billions on munitions plants, battlefield technology and military housing.
Juggling severely strained public finances, a slow-growing economy and declining popularity among an increasingly dissatisfied electorate, Starmer has sought to cast increased spending on defense as a way to create jobs and wealth. “This plan will ensure Britain is secure at home and strong abroad, while delivering a defense dividend of well-paid jobs up and down the country,” he is expected to say in a speech launching Monday’s review.
Chile president to ramp up decarbonization, pressure on Israel as term winds down
- Boric, an outspoken critic of Israel, had recently recalled military personnel from Chile’s embassy in the country and summoned the ambassador for questioning
VALPARAISO, Chile: Chile’s President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday that he will accelerate renewable energy efforts and step up pressure against Israel over its war in Gaza among other initiatives during his government’s last nine months in office.
In a wide-ranging three-hour speech from Congress in the coastal city of Valparaiso that marked his last annual address, Boric also discussed crime, infrastructure, the economy and abortion rights.
In comments that sparked the largest amount of cheers and jeers from opposite sides of Congress, Boric said he will introduce a law to ban imports from what he called “illegally occupied territories” and back efforts by Spain for an arms embargo against Israel.
Boric, an outspoken critic of Israel, had recently recalled military personnel from Chile’s embassy in the country and summoned the ambassador for questioning.
Chile’s government will also introduce an “accelerated decarbonization” bill that aims to boost investment in renewable energy sources, help end coal-powered thermoelectric plants and move the country’s 2040 goal to decarbonize the electric grid up to 2035.
Boric added that a bill to speed up the permitting process for new projects was weeks away from being approved, a long-awaited request by miners, renewable energy companies and other investors. Its goal is to cut permitting times by 30 percent to 70 percent, Boric said.
“Investment projects won’t develop to their full potential if we don’t modernize and speed up permitting,” Boric said, while also touting his plan to expand lithium mining, led by state copper giant Codelco.
Critics have rebuked Boric for not making major reforms he promised as a candidate, and for failing to see through a rewrite of the dictatorship-era constitution that was knocked back twice by voters.
Boric appeared to recognize the complaints, while defending his record.
“Have we achieved everything we wanted, with the depth we wanted? No, but we have made progress in that direction, with the conditions under which we had to govern,” he said.
Zelensky says Ukraine used 117 drones in attacks on Russian air bases
KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday it deployed 117 drones in a massive attack against Russian air bases that he called “our most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.
“A total of 117 drones were used in the operation. And a corresponding number of drone operators worked,” Zelensky said in a statement, adding that “34 percent of the strategic cruise missile carriers at the airfields were hit.”
Bangladesh opens trial of deposed ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
- The investigators brought charges of crimes against humanity against Hasina over killing of hundreds of students in a mass uprising last year
- Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2023, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also is in India
DHAKA: A special tribunal set up to try Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began proceedings Sunday by accepting the charges of crimes against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year.
The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal directed investigators to produce Hasina, a former home minister and a former police chief before the court on June 16.
Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2023, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also is in India. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun has been arrested. Bangladesh sent a formal request to India to extradite Hasina in December.
State-run Bangladesh Television broadcast the court proceedings live.
In an investigation report submitted on May 12, the tribunal’s investigators brought five allegations of crimes against humanity against Hasina and the two others during the mass uprising in July-August last year.
According to the charges, Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami League party and its associates to carry out actions that led to mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies and denial of medical treatment to the wounded.
Three days after Hasina’s ouster, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the nation’s interim leader.
In February, the UN human rights office estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks in the crackdown on the student-led protests against Hasina, who ruled the country for 15 years.
The tribunal was established by Hasina in 2009 to investigate and try crimes involving Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971. The tribunal under Hasina tried politicians, mostly from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for their actions during the nine-month war against Pakistan. Aided by India, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father and the country’s first leader.
Macron condemns ‘unacceptable’ violence during football celebrations
- Two people died and police made nearly 600 arrests across France overnight as football fans celebrated PSG’s 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich
- Macron hosted Coach Luis Enrique and his team after their victory parade on the famed Champs Elysee
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned the “unacceptable” violence during celebrations following Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League final victory, as he welcomed the triumphant team to the Elysee palace.
“Nothing can justify what has happened in the last few hours, the violent clashes are unacceptable,” the French leader said.
“We will pursue, we will punish, we will be relentless,” he added before congratulating the players on their win.
Two people died and police made nearly 600 arrests across France overnight as football fans celebrated PSG’s 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich.
“The violent clashes that took place are unacceptable and have come at a heavy cost: two people are dead, around 30 police officers and several firefighters have been injured,” Macron said.
“My thoughts are also with the police officer in Coutances who is currently in a coma,” he added.
Macron hosted Coach Luis Enrique and his team after their victory parade on the famed Champs Elysee, thanking the players for their quick condemnation of the previous night’s chaos.
“These isolated acts are contrary to the club’s values and in no way represent the vast majority of our supporters, whose exemplary behavior throughout the season deserves to be commended,” the club said on Sunday.
