Nagpur, February 12

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait will hold a kisan mahapanchayat and a public rally in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra on February 20, an office-bearer of Samyukta Kisan Morcha has said.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) is an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions protesting at various Delhi border points against the three farm laws.

Its Maharashtra coordinator Sandip Gidde told PTI that Tikait, Yudveer Singh and several other leaders of the SKM would hold the mahapanchayat and public meeting at Azad Maidan in Yavatmal.

“Tikait wants to start the kisan mahapanchayat in Maharashtra from Yavatmal, which has earned the dubious distinction of being the hotspot of farmer suicides,” he said.

Farmers from Vidarbha and parts of Maharashtra are expected to participate in the mahapanchayat, for which permission has been sought.

A police official from Yavatmal said the organisers had sought permission for the event. PTI

New Delhi, February 11

The Samkyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting farmer unions, on Thursday announced that ‘kisan mahapanchayats’ will be organised across the country in the coming days against the Centre’s three agri laws.

The morcha made it clear that it will not call off the ongoing protest until its demands to repeal the laws and bring legal guarantee for minimum support price on their crops are met.

In a statement, the protesting farmers’ body said its teams are planning the programmes of the state-wise mahapanchayats.

The move comes a day after it announced a four-hour nationwide ‘rail roko’ (rail blockade) on February 18 to press for their demands.

Protesting farmer leader Darshan Pal said a mahapanchayat will be held in Moadabad (Uttar Pradesh) on Friday, followed by Bahadurgarh bypass (Haryana) on February 13, Sri Ganganagar (Rajasthan) on February 18, Hanumangarh (Rajasthan) on Februrary 19 and Sikar (Rajasthan) on February 23.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at the three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for over 75 days.

In a statement, Pal alleged that the government is not serious to fulfil the “fair and genuine” farmers’ demand of ‘karza mukti, pura daam’.

The unions also claimed that the Haryana government has proposed to install CCTV cameras at the Tikri border protest site.

Meanwhile, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav, who has been actively involved in the agitation, issued a statement terming as “baseless” the allegation made by Congress member Ravneet Singh Bittu blaming him for the Republic Day violence in the national capital.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on February 9, Bittu claimed that Yadav had incited the farmers which lead to the violence on January 26.

At the Singhu border protest site, the unions have begun strengthening the infrastructure by installing CCTV cameras for enhanced security, electric fans to beat the heat in the coming months, and laying separate optical fibre line for wi-fi facility in case there is another internet shutdown.

These are some of the measures taken by the agitating farmers to prepare for a long haul as a resolution of the stalemate over the new farm legislation seems unlikely anytime soon.

“We are strengthening our communication and other infrastructure to continue the agitation for a long period,” said Deep Khatri associated with managing logistics at the Singhu Border protest site.

To increase security measures and keep miscreants at bay, 100 CCTV cameras with digital video recorders are being installed at the main stage used by the Morcha and also at some identified spots across the protest site’s stretch on the GT Karnal Road.

The protesting farmer unions have been alleging that the laws will weaken the minimum support price mechanism and end mandi system.

But the government says the new legislations offer more options to farmers to sell their crops, and will help raise their incomes. PTI

Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
Ghazipur, February 10

Mata Savitribai Phule Mahasabha (MSPM) tent is attracting a lot of attention from the crowd in Ghazipur.

Over 30 children, mostly rag pickers and children of guards from the nearby colonies and a few from farming families sitting in protest are making a big ruckus as they repeat numbers and alphabets in chorus.

The noise quotient is bringing a number of curious onlookers to the tent.

The Savitribai Phule Pathshala has been running at the Ghazipur protest site since January 22.

The pupils — their numbers fluctuate from 30 to 60 daily — started off with a great difficulty as the Andolan Committee weren’t keen on having a school at a protest site.

The indifference notwithstanding, the school is not only prospering, it is bringing a lot of change in the lifestyle of these young students in terms of their keenness to learn and also towards their personal hygiene.

“Initially we couldn’t see the colours on their clothes. They were all covered in dirt,” said Nirdhesh Singh, who runs the school along with three other teachers.

“Now they have all started to work towards cleanliness and personal hygiene. Nowadays they troop in well before the start of the school,” Singh, who had to initially lure these children with candies and other treats to bring them anywhere near a white board, said.

“Madam I haven’t got my notebook yet. You have to give me two books as well,” Shabbo, who is seven, asked Limdevi Maurya, who took the class on Tuesday.

Karthik, 10, whose father is a guard in the nearby Gaursons apartment, was in attendance.

Kunal Pradhan, 8, a student of Balvidya Public School, said, “Sir mera school lockdown se band hai, isliye aata hun (my school is shut since lockdown that’s why I come).”

Young Jamshed, whose father Jawaid is a rickshaw puller, has been a regular attendant.

“Bahut accha lagta hai (It feels really good),” he says.

Nirdhesh, who is also the national president of MSPM, said the organisation works for the poor and downtrodden in Uttar Pradesh and when they joined the protest only then this idea of running a school came about.

“We run a campaign for de-addiction and suggest to take up education to prosper,” she explained.

“Nobody is bothered about the lifestyle of poor. So it was important for us to show these children that they are also a part of our society. And that’s how this school came into being,” she added.

Besides pupils, the school has also started to attract attention of teachers like Limdevi, who has travelled all the way to the protest site from Bastar, Chhattisgarh.

“I came here yesterday,” Maurya said.

“Today was my first day. I enjoyed it thoroughly. And it helped that these children already know the numbers and alphabets,” she added.

New Delhi, February 10

Union Minister and former Army chief General VK Singh (Retd) on Wednesday said his statement on transgressions by the Indian troops on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was distorted that gave China a platform to try and “cover their own aggressive tracks”.

Singh’s comment about Indian troops crossing the LAC had sparked a war of words between the two countries prompting Beijing to blame New Delhi for the military tension at the borders.

The minister also lashed out at the newspaper ‘The Indian Express’ for carrying out a sustained campaign against him.

“For almost a decade, ever since I was the COAS, the Indian Express has launched a sustained campaign against me. A misinformation campaign that sometimes bordered on the bizarre, as was the case with the now infamous coup story, have repeatedly hit the headlines,” he said.

Singh was referring to a news article carried by the daily on April 4, 2012 titled ‘The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt’.

Clarifying his remarks in Madurai on Sunday, the minister said he was purported to have said “India has been transgressing the LAC with China, five times to everyone ingress of theirs”.

“This distortion could not be further from the truth. I had simply stated the established fact that the borders along the LAC have not been demarcated and until that is done there will always be differing perceptions,” Singh tweeted.

The minister also added that the fact is that the People’s Republic of China has refused to settle the border as part of the bullying tactics they have adopted.

He said that Indian side is aware of these tactics and any aggression will be responded to with equal or greater level as was the case in Galwan.

Singh pointed out that in the race to create sensational headlines, newspaper editors must verify what was said and what is reported.

“The distortion of my statement/reply has needlessly given the Chinese a platform to try and cover their own aggressive tracks and shift the blame on India,” he said.

In Tamil Nadu’s Madurai on February 7, Singh, while addressing the media at a Circuit House, had said that China has transgressed into India many times over the years with its own perception of the LAC.

“But none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed, as per our perception. The Indian government does not announce it, while the Chinese media does not cover it,” he said.

“Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times,” Singh claimed.

China reacted to Singh’s statement and its foreign ministry called it “an unwitting confession”.

According to the statement published on the Chinese foreign ministry’s website on February 8, spokesperson Wang Wenbin reacted to Singh’s statement and blamed India for the ongoing border conflict along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

“This is unwitting confession by the Indian side. For a long time, the Indian side has conducted frequent acts of trespass in the border area in an attempt to encroach on China’s territory and constantly created disputes and frictions which is the root cause of the tensions at the China-India border,” said the Chinese foreign ministry. — IANS

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 8

With the focus of the farmers’ movement shifting from Punjab to the Jat hinterland, the Singhu protest site on the Delhi border, so far dominated by Sikh farmers, has donned a secular colour.

The morning starts with the recitation of Gurbani from the stage, followed by Hanuman Chalisa and other religious hymns.

Farmer leaders say the sudden increase in participation of Haryana farmers has further secularised the movement. “Now, it has gone much beyond any communal agenda.

It is now difficult for the state to label this movement a ‘Khalistani struggle’,” says one of the leaders of the 32 farmer organisations spearheading the agitation.

Earlier, farmer leaders were opposing the idea of any religious activity from the official stage at Singhu. In December, even a detailed discussion took place during a meeting of the farmer organisations on ways to save the movement from becoming a “show of one particular religion”.

Apart from exchange of religious values, a mix of cultures is taking place at the protest site. This is the first time a large number of women and children from Haryana are participating at the Singhu border.

“This is something that has never been seen before,” says a lawyer from Punjab and Haryana High Court who returned from Singhu on Sunday.

New Delhi, February 10

The Indian Navy is carrying out a mega war game involving almost all operational assets like warships, submarines and aircraft over a vast geographical expanse in the Indian Ocean Region to test the force’s combat readiness in a complex multi-dimensional scenario, officials said on Wednesday.

The biennial ‘Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX)’ aims to validate the Navy’s offensive as well as defence capabilities and safeguard national interests in the maritime domain besides promoting peace and stability in the Indian Ocean, they said.

“Indian Navy’s largest war game, the biennial TROPEX 21, which commenced in early January is currently underway with participation of all operational units of Indian Navy including ships, submarines, aircraft as well as units of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard,” the Navy said.

It said the exercise will culminate by the third week of February.

The exercise is taking place at a time China has been making increasing forays into the Indian Ocean region as part of its offensive military manoeuvre.

“The exercise is being conducted over a vast geographical expanse in the Indian Ocean Region including its adjunct waters and is aimed at testing combat readiness of the Navy in a complex multi-dimensional scenario set in the context of the current geostrategic environment,” the Navy said in a statement.

It said the conduct of TROPEX is being overseen by the Naval headquarters with participation from all three commands of the Indian Navy and the tri-services command at Port Blair.

“TROPEX is being progressed over distinct phases that also test the Navy’s transition from peacetime to hostilities,” the Navy said.

As part of the first phase of the exercise, the Indian Navy along with other stakeholders held a two-day mega drill in January covering the country’s 7,516 km coastline and exclusive economic zone.

The ‘Sea Vigil’ exercise from January 12-13 was billed as India’s largest coastal defence drill, and it was aimed at validating the coastal defence setup which was revamped after the 26/11 terror attack.

“Valuable lessons emerging from the exercise are being incorporated in the existing procedures to further fine-tune the coastal defence architecture of the country,” the Navy said.

“Exercise Sea Vigil was followed by a large-scale tri-service joint amphibious exercise AMPHEX-21, which was conducted in the Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands from January 21-25,” it said.

The amphibious exercise was aimed at validating India’s capabilities to safeguard the territorial integrity of its island territories and enhance operational synergy and joint war fighting capabilities amongst the three services, the Navy said.

“The weapon workup phase of TROPEX, which concluded recently, witnessed multiple ‘on-target’ ordnance deliveries including missiles, torpedoes and rockets from frontline warships, aircraft and submarines and demonstrated the lethal firepower of the Indian Navy,” the Navy said.

It said the ‘weapon workout’ phase also reaffirmed the Navy’s capability to carry out long range maritime strikes in the Indian Ocean Region, a capability that is central to meeting operational challenges and ensuring safe seas and secure coasts. — PTI