Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 12

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala met Union Home Minister Amit Shah today and apprised him of the law and order situation in the state in the context of the farmers’ protest against the three farm laws and upcoming Republic Day.

After the meeting, Khattar said smooth conduct of Republic Day celebrations, which was a national festival, was the top priority and the issue figured in the meeting with Shah.

Sources said Shah asked Khattar and Dushyant to step up security and vigil and take no chances. “Unfortunately, one of the epicentres of the agitation is Haryana and it borders Delhi,” Khattar said.

He said the Supreme Court had taken up the farm laws for consideration and had constituted a committee to seek the views of farmers.

He said that in the light of the apex court stepping in, farmers should return to their homes. “Now, our farmer brothers should go back home,” he said.

Responding to a specific question, he said withdrawal of police cases registered during the farmers’ protest was in the police domain. “The government has no role in it. It is for the police to investigate and take a call on the matter,” he said.

In reply to another question, he said there was political stability in Haryana. There was no basis in media speculations, he added, implying that the BJP-JJP government in the state was stable.

He said this in reference to speculations that some JJP MlAs were very unhappy with the farm laws, casting doubts over the longevity of the coalition government.

State BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar, state JJP president Nishan Singh and state Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar also attended the meeting, which lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.

Earlier, Dushyant held a meeting with his party MLAs, lasting more than two and a half hours, and sought their views on measures that could improve farming prospects in the state.

Harnessing of technology in farming, thrust on drip irrigation than on open canal system, crop diversification and marketing of agricultural produce were among the suggestions that were put forth by the JJP MLAs. Efforts to make farmers aware of the government’s welfare schemes were also among the suggestions.

JJP MLA Davinder Babli said the legislators were of the view that the three laws had dented the image of the JJP and Haryana Government. They expressed the view that opposition parties had spread canards against the recent farm laws and were stoking passions among the farmers.

They were of the view that the issue of farm laws, farmers’ protest and related matters were now under the consideration of the Supreme Court. They expressed the hope that the imbroglio would end soon following the Supreme Court’s intervention.

Mathura, January 13

Farmers agitating at the borders of Delhi don’t know what they want, said veteran actor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Mathura, Hema Malini, and added that they are only protesting because someone had asked them to do so.

“It is good that the Supreme Court has stayed the laws. This will hopefully calm the situation. Farmers are not willing to come to a consensus even after so many talks. They do not even know what they want and what is the problem with the farm laws. This means that they are doing this because someone asked them to do it,” Hema Malini said.

She also said that it was ‘not nice’ to see towers being vandalised in Punjab.

“Punjab has suffered a lot of losses. It was not nice to see them (farmers) vandalise towers. The government has called them for talks repeatedly, but they don’t even have an agenda,” she added.

Speaking about the COVID-19 situation, she reminded people that the pandemic is not yet over and masks should be used and safety protocols followed.

“Corona is not yet over. Some people from our party passed away due to the disease. The general public should continue to be more cautious. If we roam around freely (without precautions) it will increase again. Especially with this new bird flu, everyone should take care of themselves and their family,” she said.

The actor-turned-politician further said that she would definitely be vaccinated when her turn comes.

“Good that the vaccine is here now. I will definitely get the vaccine when my turn comes. The opposition has also said some things. Whatever the government says they have to say just the opposite,” she said. —

New Delhi, January 13

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Rakesh Arora used to be a vendor at the India Gate, but his business did not pick up after lockdown. Now, the farmers’ stir at the Singhu border has given him a chance to improve livelihood, selling badges and stickers.

With the protesting farmers staying put at the border point of the national capital for over six weeks now, a number of small businesses have sprung up at the site, the newest being sale of pro-protest badges and stickers.

Shopkeepers with basketful of badges and stickers with ‘I love Kheti (farming)’, ‘I love Kisan’, and ‘Kisan Ekta Zindabad’ printed on them have seated themselves at every nook and corner of the highway. Almost every protester could be seen wearing a badge, while the tractors and trolleys flaunt the stickers.

Arora and his nephew brought in inventory worth Rs 2,500 two days ago from Ambala and have managed to sell products worth Rs 700 so far.

“I used to be a vendor at India Gate. But after lockdown, business has been really poor. So we decided to set shop at the protest once we saw an opportunity,” Arora said.

Amaan, an electrician from Delhi’s Okhla has also taken to selling these badges and stickers, owing to lack of work. Both badge and sticker are being sold at Rs 10.

“It doesn’t yield much income, but something is better than nothing. Barely 15-20 people buy these each day,” he said.

Brothers Moin (17) and Nadeef (11), from Uttar Pradesh’s Loni, have also ventured into this business. “We bring in 500 of these badges every day. We manage to sell some 300 of them,” said Moin, who set up shop in Singhu a week back.

Many shopkeepers at Singhu border are hoping to make most of the agitation, by earning whatever little they can. Many of these badges are sourced from Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar market.

Chandan Kumar, who has been running an electrical equipment shop at the Singhu border for over five years now, has pushed bulbs, switches and wires to the back and lined his shop with ‘No Farmer, No Food’ stickers and badges.

“The electrical business had completely taken a backseat. I realised that the farmers liked stickers about their agitation. So I started getting radium paper from Kashmere Gate market and printing the stickers myself,” he said.

Kumar said while it was not at all a close substitute for his earlier business, it did bring in some income.

For over a month several farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, are camping at the borders of Delhi to protest the three farms laws, which the NDA claims will reform the agri sector.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates. PTI

New Delhi, January 13

Farmers protesting at Delhi borders said they would burn copies of the Centre’s new agriculture laws at all demonstration sites on the festival of Lohri on Wednesday, as a mark of protest against the legislations.

Lohri is mostly celebrated in north India, marking the beginning of the spring season. Bonfires are a special characteristic of the festival.

Farmers’ leader Manjeet Singh Rai said they would celebrate Lohri by burning the copies of farm laws at all protest sites in the evening.

Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of around 40 protesting farmer unions, will hold a meeting later in the day to discuss the next course of action.

This comes a day after the protesting farmer unions asserted that they would not appear before the Supreme Court-appointed panel, alleging it was “pro-government”, and said they would not settle for anything less than the repeal of the three contentious laws.

The unions also raised doubts over the neutrality of the members of the committee even as they welcomed the top court’s order to stay the implementation of the laws.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the controversial farm laws till further orders and set up the four-member committee to resolve the impasse between the Centre and the farmer unions protesting at Delhi’s borders over the legislations.

Also read: Protesting farmers don’t know what they want, says Hema Malini; adds ‘Punjab has suffered a lot of losses’

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Haryana and Punjab, have been protesting at several border points of Delhi since November 28 last year, demanding a repeal of the three laws and a legal guarantee to the minimum support price (MSP) system for their crops.

Enacted in September last year, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed the apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates. — PTI

Chandigarh, January 12

The Swarnim Vijay Mashaal or the victory flame, which is traversing the country as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the 1971 Indo-Pak war victory, arrived at Zirakpur today.

A grand reception was organised for the flame. Serving personnel and veterans paid tributes to the war martyrs.

In the western part, the flame will pass through 35 locations and 11 key battle locations from where soil will be collected and used for sapling plantation event at the National War Memorial in New Delhi.

The flame will move to Chandimandir, the headquarters of the Western Command that had played a key role in the war. — TNS