Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 9

Commuters were at the receiving end on Saturday after a tractor rally was taken out on the city roads to lend support to farmers protesting against the contentious agriculture laws.

With rows of tractors, jeeps and cars taking over roads and highways, farmers continued to raise slogans against the Modi government.

Flaunting banners of ‘Kisan Union Ekta’, ‘No Farmers, No Food, No Future’ and ‘Repeal black laws’, as many as 3,000 farmers and youth took out the rally as a massive show of strength and unity.

A convoy of over 350 tractors and 300 other vehicles travelled for 25 km covering areas including Model Town, GTB Nagar, Guru Nanak Mission Chowk, Skylark Chowk, Nakodar Chowk, Kapurthala Chowk, BMC Chowk, bus stand, BSF Chowk and PAP. The police were also deployed to ensure that the rally remains peaceful.

Gurshant Singh Sidhu, who not only participated in the rally, but was also one of the organising members, said they started their tractor rally on Saturday to further intensify the ongoing protest against the three farm laws.

“It was just a trailer of the Republic Day tractor march. We want to show the government that apart from farmers on the outskirts of Delhi, a sea of supporters from across the state will also enter Delhi on January 26. We are warning the government to withdraw the controversial laws as it’s just the ‘rehearsal’ of the main show,” he said.

Karanveer Singh, one of the protesters who was riding a tractor, said: “It seems like the Prime Minister cannot see us or hear us despite having so much strength. He has forgotten that we are the ones who have voted him to power. Through the tractor rally we would like to tell the government that it is better to take back the laws.”

Accompanying him, Gurpreet Singh, a farmer from Lohian Khas village, said: “This tractor rally was just a preparation to the main parade. Through today’s rally, we were successful in exhibiting our preparation and strength to the government and gave them an idea of how the rally on Republic Day will look like. We are an extremely peaceful lot and we have no intention of getting into face-offs with any person or authority of any kind.”

Meanwhile, around 300-400 people, carrying mashaals and candles in their hands, took out a mashaal march in the city as well. Organised by NGO V4U (The Helping Hand) and Trade Union Council, Jalandhar, the march started from Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall and concluded at Model Town.

Sikh groups to hold rally in Italy

Condemning the adamant attitude of the Centre over the three farm laws, the Alliance of Sikh Organisations (a group of 35 organisations) on Saturday announced to intensify their protest and take it to international level. The organisations said farmers were spending nights on roads in winter season, but the Centre was not willing to accept their demands. On a call given by Italy-based NGO against injustice ‘Movement against Atrocities and Repression’, members of the Alliance of Sikh organisations informed to hold a rally in Rome. They said considering the Covid guidelines, around 100 people will participate in the rally, which will be organised in front of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations on January 15. Sukhdev Singh Phagwara, spokesperson, said efforts were being made to highlight the issue to gain attention of the UN. “The alliance has decided to hold a massive farmers’ rally on January 15 in Italy. A memorandum will be submitted to the authorities concerned.” TNS

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 9

Ending the long wait on ordering an improved version of the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is expected to take a formal call on the Rs 38,800 crore ($5.1 billion) project for making 83 such jets over the next six-seven years.

The move comes almost 10 months after the Defence Acquisition Council in March 2020 announced “the procurement of 83 more advanced Mark 1A version of the aircraft (Tejas)”. The decision of the DAC will need to be ratified by the CCS, which is headed by PM Narendra Modi. The CCS is expected to take up the matter next week, sources said.

The jet will have some 43 improvements over the initial version and two of limited series production jets are conducting trials. Among the other improvements, the major improvements are to enhance operational capability.

These include easier maintenance, active electronically scanned array radar, electronic warfare suite and beyond-visual range missile capabilities, that will include the Indian made air-to-air missile Aastra Mark1. It will also have the ability to carry missiles for long range.

The move, once okayed, will take the number of Tejas jets on order to 123 jets —in three variants, all powered by a general electric engine. So far 20 have been made in what is called the initial operational clearance version. Another 20 are being made in what is called the final operational clearance version. The remaining 83 will be called the Tejas Mark 1A.

The Aeronautical Development Agency under the DRDO has designed the plane while Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is the manufacturer.

Nothing is gained any longer from weighing the rights and wrongs of the farm laws; it is time for a breakthrough. The losses to Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and private and government enterprises like the railways are mounting day by painful day. Punjab Government officials claim that the state could have incurred a loss of Rs 4,500 crore during the ongoing agitation. The loss of lives (60, according to certain accounts) among the agitators in the coldest months of this particularly harsh winter; the three who have committed suicide; and those elderly who brave the elements are all pointers to the human suffering involved in the agitation. Equally miserable are those whose lives and livelihoods have been disrupted due to the blockade. Thursday’s tractor march on the Kundli- Manesar-Palwal Expressway forewarnsof Delhi being cut off from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, parts of Himachal Pradesh and western Uttar Pradesh. This is a crisis and the government is badly mistaken if it plans to wear the farmers out. That is no plan.

The meeting of Baba Lakha Singh of Nanaksar Gurdwara with Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar is a welcome move. The Baba says he has been serving the protesters langar at the Delhi border and knew the fellow priest from Karnal of the Nanaksar sect, who took his life to express solidarity with the farmers. The BJP’s Kisan Morcha seeking out the Akal Takht Jathedar, its religious symbolism notwithstanding, is a promising signal because the Centre ought to pause and let the state governments decide whether they want to notify the farm laws and implement them. Agriculture is a state subject and it should remain so. The Centre has a responsibility to give direction and to push the nation towards prosperity by framing model laws on state subjects; but then it should leave it to the people, particularly the state governments, to accept, modify or even reject the proposals.

A well-intentioned proposal will surely get the people’s acceptance in due course of time. Meanwhile, good governance is all about finding solutions, however intractable the situation is. Let there be governance.

New Delhi, January 9

The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) on Saturday said it will pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the farmers’ movement against the Centre’s new agri laws by collecting soil from across the country, especially from towns and villages of farmers who died, and create a map of India with it in the national capital.

Beside paying tribute to the farmers who died, the nationwide campaign, “Ek Mutthi Mitti Shaheddon Ke Naam” has also been launched in support of the farmers’ movement and against the three “black laws” brought by the central government.

“I request everyone to come out and support this campaign and the farmers’ movement. We will be travelling from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and collect soil from across the country, especially from villages and hometown of the 60 farmers who have lost their lives during the ongoing agitation,” said Krishna Allavaru, national in-charge of IYC.

“With that soil, we will create a map of India, the one built on the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and sacrifices made by martyrs who laid their lives during the freedom struggle of India,” said Allavaru.

According to the IYC, the campaign is inspired from the historic ‘Dandi March’ where Mahatma Gandhi picked up a fistful of salt from the shore of the Arabian Sea on March 12, 1930 and challenged the British Raj.

The IYC, during the press conference, also launched a song and poster for the campaign.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, are staying put at various border points of Delhi since late November last year to protest against recent farm laws of the Centre. — PTI