INDIA FARM PROTESTS

Farmer’s death | Black flags atop houses & vehicles, burning of effigies: Punjab vents anger, slams govt

BKU (Ugrahan) members burnt effigies at 47 locations in 17 districts of Punjab, including Maur, Bathinda, Sunam, Sangrur, Moga and many other locations.

Written by Raakhi Jagga
Ludhiana | February 24, 2024

Members of the BKU Ugrahan burns the effigy of PM Modi, Amit Shah, Haryana CM Khattar and DGP of Haryana in Bathinda. (Express Photo)

Hundreds of angry and grief-stricken people — women, men and even children — with black ribbons on their turbans and arms hit the streets in Punjab on Friday observing ‘Aakrosh Diwas’ to protest the death of young farmer Shubhkarman Singh on February 21 at the Khanauri borders during the ongoing Dilli Chalo agitation.

Besides, residents displayed black flags atop their houses and on vehicles as a mark of protest.

The protest call was given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is not part of the Dilli Chalo, while SKM (Non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), both part of the agitation, observed ‘Black Day’.

Also Read | Shubkaran Singh, the young Punjab farmer who died during protest: what his room tells about him

“Revolution is in our blood. Demanding our legitimate rights is our right. If the government suppresses us by using force, we need to raise our voices. We are not part of the dharna at Shambhu and Khanauri, but that doesn’t mean we will not raise our voices against the atrocities of Haryana. Farmers at Shambhu said the social media handles of more than 170 people had been blocked by the Centre. This is the death of democracy,” said Manjit Kaur from Khiddikalan village, Barnala, who burnt effigies along with other women Friday afternoon.

Jatinder Kaur Chahal, another protester, said, “They (the government) need to test our DNA…our history…how resilient, we are as a community. If you resist, we will persist.”

Chahal and her husband Harcharan, a state committee member of the Association of Federation of Democratic Rights (AFDR), participated in the protest.

Writer and social activist Sushil Dosanjh, too, erected a black flag atop his house in Taran Taran Friday morning, while many teenagers participated in the protest in Jagraon, Fazilka and Sangrur.

Waheguru Singh of Barnala could be seen holding a black flag all alone outside his house, while Kanwaljit Singh of Jagraon said, “Bahut rosh hai man vich (we have so much anger in our minds)”.”

Saudagar Singh from Ghudani village in Ludhiana said, “Gussa vi hai, dukh vi hai…jwan bacha maar ditta (there is anger as well as grief… they killed our young child).”
Read More | Two deaths at farmer protest sites, one farmer, the other a cop

Women in Kishangarh village of Mansa burnt effigies of several leaders and raised slogans against the Haryana government and the Centre.

BKU (Ugrahan) members burnt effigies at 47 locations in 17 districts of Punjab, including Maur, Bathinda, Sunam, Sangrur, Moga and many other locations.

Central trade unions had also given a call to observe ‘Black Day’ along with the SKM.

In Ludhiana, CTUs and SKM members protested jointly near the mini-secretariat. Led by CPI leaders Dr Arun Mitra and DP Maur, protesters holding black flags and wearing black ribbons burnt effigies.

Meanwhile, the SKM welcomed the Punjab government’s decision to provide compensation of Rs 1 crore and a job to a family member of 21-year-old Shubhkaran Singh, a resident of Balloh village in Bathinda district, who died allegedly in a clash with security personnel at the Punjab-Haryana Khanauri border.

However, Darshan Pal, SKM National Coordination Committee (NCC) member said, “The stand taken by the family of Shubhkaran and farmer organisations needs to be appreciated. The Punjab government needs to act fast as youngsters are getting killed in its territory.”

Pal added, “SKM reiterates its demand of registering an FIR under IPC section 302 (punishment for murder) against the people responsible for state repression and death of the farmers, and a judicial inquiry by a Supreme Court judge into the firing and damages caused to tractors.”

X takes down accounts related to farmers’ protest after Indian government orders

X clarified these accounts and posts will be withheld only in India

• 22 February, 2024

Shanghai,China-July 30th 2023: X (new Twitter), Threads, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WeChat, WhatsApp. Douyin(TikTok) and Sina Weibo app icons. Assorted online social media software brands

By: Shajil Kumar

Social media platform X said on Thursday it took down certain accounts and posts following an order by the Indian government, which local media reports say are linked to ongoing protests by farmers demanding higher prices for crops.

The platform formerly known as Twitter did not provide details of the removals but said it disagreed with the action and that the move amounts to curtailing freedom of expression.

However, a PTI report quoting sources said India’s electronics and information technology ministry has ordered social media platforms to temporarily block 177 accounts linked to the farmers’ protests at the request of the home ministry.

The action puts the spotlight again on the struggles faced by foreign technology giants operating in India under prime minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has often criticised Google, Facebook, and Twitter for not doing enough to tackle what it calls fake or “anti-India” content.

X said its position on the matter was consistent with its ongoing legal challenge against the Indian government’s content-blocking orders.

“We will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone; however, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts,” X’s Global Government Affairs said in a post, without naming the accounts.

The statement comes following a week of protests by thousands of Indian farmers who have camped 200 km (125 miles) north of Delhi after police blocked their march to the capital and fired tear gas at crowds trying to press forward.

National daily Hindustan Times reported that the “emergency” blocking orders issued last week by the government cover accounts of some farmers’ groups and supporters.

The home affairs and information technology ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jairam Ramesh, a lawmaker from India’s main opposition Congress party, said in a post on X that the move represented the “murder of democracy in India”.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that be it media or social media, the Modi government is suppressing every voice of truth.

X’s Global Government Affairs said legal restrictions do not allow it to publish the government orders but the platform wants to maintain transparency.

“This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making,” it said. (Agencies)

French farmers take tractors back on the streets of Paris in new protest

23 February 2024, 18:54

France Farmers Protests. Picture: PA

The farmers are part of a broader protest movement in Europe against EU agriculture policies, bureaucracy and overall business conditions.

Angry farmers have headed back to Paris on their tractors in a new protest demanding more government support and simpler regulations, on the eve of a major agricultural fair in the French capital.

Dozens of tractors drove peacefully into Paris carrying flags from Rural Co-ordination, the farmers’ union that staged the protest.

The protesters then posed with their tractors on a bridge over the River Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background, before heading towards the Vauban plaza in central Paris, where they all gathered for the demonstration.

The latest protest comes three weeks after farmers lifted roadblocks around Paris and elsewhere in the country after the government offered more than 400 million euros to address their grievances over low earnings, heavy regulation and what they describe as unfair competition from abroad.

Farmers are demanding more government support and simpler regulations (Thomas Padilla/AP)

“Save our agriculture,” the Rural Co-ordination said on X, formerly Twitter. One tractor was carrying a poster reading: “Death is in the field.”

The convoy temporarily slowed traffic on the A4 motorway, east of the capital, and on the Paris ring-road earlier on Friday morning.

French farmers’ actions are part of a broader protest movement in Europe against EU agriculture policies, bureaucracy and overall business conditions.

Farmers complain that the 27-nation bloc’s environmental policies, such as the Green Deal, which calls for limits on the use of chemicals and on greenhouse gas emissions, limit their business and make their products more expensive than non-EU imports.

Other protests are being staged across France as farmers seek to put pressure on the government to implement its promises.

Government officials have held a series of meetings with farmers’ unions in recent weeks to discuss a new bill meant to defend France’s “agricultural sovereignty”, and which will be debated in parliament this spring.

The latest protest comes three weeks after farmers lifted roadblocks around Paris (Thomas Padilla/AP)

The government’s plan also includes hundreds of millions of euros in aid, tax breaks and a promise not to ban pesticides in France that are allowed elsewhere in Europe. French farmers say such bans put them at an unfair disadvantage.

Cyril Hoffman, a cereal producer in the Burgundy region and a member of the Rural Co-ordination, said farmers now want the government to “take action”.

He said his union is advocating for exempting the farming industry from free trade agreements.

“They can make free trade agreements but agriculture should not be part of them, so we can remain sovereign regarding our food,” Mr Hoffman said. “Only in France do we let our farming disappear.”

French President Emmanuel Macron planned to visit the Paris Agricultural Fair on Saturday, though his office appeared to have removed from his agenda a previously scheduled “big debate” with farmers and members of environmental groups at the event.

The president will meet with farmers’ unions before the fair’s opening, his office said on Friday.

Yet France’s major farmers’ union, the FNSEA, said its board decided not to participate in the debate because “conditions for a peaceful dialogue are not met”. The FNSEA staged another protest in Paris, near the site of the fair, on Friday afternoon.

The Paris Agricultural Fair is one of the world’s largest farm fairs, drawing crowds every year.

By Press Association

France, Poland lead new wave of European farmer anger

By AFP
February 23, 2024

Tractors rolled into Paris on Friday as farmers sought to pile pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron - Copyright NASA/AFP Handout

French and Polish farmers led a new surge of agricultural anger in Europe on Friday, taking tractors into major cities and blocking roads to demand lighter regulation and taxation.

Farmers across the continent have been protesting for weeks over what they say are excessively restrictive environmental rules, competition from cheap imports from outside the European Union and low incomes.

Tractors rolled into Paris as farmers sought to pile pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron on the eve of a flagship annual agricultural show which has turned into a major political event.

Promises of reforms by the government in response to January’s protests have failed to placate the farmers, who were due to discuss their grievances with Macron at the Salon de l’Agriculture on Saturday before the president cancelled the planned debate.

“We’re really not being listened to, because we’re really being taken for pawns,” Nicolas Bongay, president of a farmers’ union in the rural Doubs department, told AFP.

“It’s very, very hard for everyone. We came here not to go away… we’re staying.”

Macron’s name was whistled and booed at a meeting of farmers belonging to France’s main agricultural union on Friday evening, an AFP journalist said.

French farmers have continued to block roads, set fire to tyres and lay siege to supermarkets, saying they need more measures.

Farmers in Spain have also held mass protests this week.

– Ukraine PM snubbed –

In eastern Europe, Polish officials snubbed a delegation led by Ukraine’s prime minister on Friday seeking to resolve tensions caused by weeks-long Polish farmer protests at their border.

Polish farmers have vowed to block a key road linking Poland and Germany from Sunday.

Polish farmers have blocked crossing points at the Ukrainian border to denounce what they say is unfair competition from their war-torn neighbour’s cheaper produce.

Polish authorities said they had never agreed to a border meeting over the demonstrations, which Ukraine says threaten its exports and are holding up deliveries of crucial weapons for its two-year war against Russia.

“Unfortunately, Polish government officials did not come,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

“But we publicly appealed to them, gave our proposals, and will continue this work.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s chief of staff told AFP Warsaw had not sent a delegation because a meeting “makes no sense at the moment”.

The two sides were “far” from a deal to end the showdown, said Jan Grabiec, and “there is not yet a Ukrainian proposition that allows to hope for an end to the deadlock”.

On Friday, Polish police said grain from Ukraine had been spilled on a Polish railway close to the border — the second such incident this week.

EU ministers are to meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss new European Commission proposals aiming to change regulations at the heart of the discontent, for example reducing the number of checks on produce.

burs-imm/tw

Spain farmers drive tractors into central Madrid as part of ongoing protests against EU

Many tractors flew Spanish flags and some farmers carried banners reading, 'There is no life without farming', and 'Farmers in Extinction'

AP/PTI Madrid Published 22.02.24,

A protester clashes with a police officer as Spanish farmers protest in Madrid on Wednesday

Reuters

Hundreds of farmers drove their tractors into central Madrid on Wednesday as part of ongoing protests against EU and local farming policies and to demand measures to alleviate production cost hikes.

The protest, the biggest to take place in the Spanish capital after more than two weeks of daily protests across the country, will include a rally outside the agriculture ministry headquarters.

Many of the tractors flew Spanish flags and some farmers carried banners reading, “There is no life without farming”, and “Farmers in Extinction”.

“It is impossible to live from the rural industry, which is what we want, to live from our work. That is all we ask for,” Silvia Ruiz, 46, a livestock farmer from the north-central area of Burgos said.

The Union of Unions organising group said they were bringing 500 tractors and many more farmers on buses. Many of the tractors may have to stay outside the city because of government restrictions.

Similar protests have taken place across the bloc in recent weeks. Farmers complain that the 27-nation EU’s policies on the environment and other matters are a financial burden and make their products more expensive than non-EU imports. Spain and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, have made some concessions in recent weeks but farmers say they are insufficient.

Besides EU policies, Spanish farmers maintain that a law aimed at guaranteeing that wholesale major supermarket buyers pay fair prices for their goods isn’t being enforced while consumer prices soar.

In France, the EU’s largest agricultural producer, the government of President Macron is also under intense pressure from angry farmers who held major demonstrations last month and have since continued with more scattered protests to push for better pay and other assistance.

NHS strike action: Junior doctors in England begin five-day walkout threatening further patient disruption

Sky News
Fri, 23 February 2024 



Patients face further major disruption as junior doctors in England begin a five-day strike in their ongoing pay row with the government.

Tens of thousands of hospital appointments are set to be cancelled or postponed as a result of the latest walkout which began at 7am on Saturday and will stretch until 11.59pm on Wednesday.

It is the 10th stoppage by junior doctors since last March and follows the longest strike in NHS history in January, which lasted six full days.

"The government could have stopped these strikes by simply making a credible pay offer for junior doctors in England to begin reversing the pay cuts they have inflicted upon us for more than a decade," Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors committee, said.

"The same government could have even accepted our offer to delay this round of strike action to give more space for talks - all we asked for in return was a short extension of our mandate to strike.

"The fact that ministers have chosen strike action over what could have been the end of this year's pay dispute is disappointing to say the least."

The BMA also expects its strike mandate to be renewed raising the prospect of further industrial action.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said: "I want to see doctors treating patients, not standing on picket lines.

"In negotiations with the BMA junior doctors committee, we made it clear we were prepared to go further than the pay increase of up to 10.3% that they have already received. They refused to put our offer to their members.

"More than 1.3 million appointments and operations have already been cancelled or rescheduled since industrial action began - five days of further action will compound this.

"The NHS has robust contingency plans in place, and it is vital that people continue to come forward for treatment. But no one should underestimate the impact these strikes have on our NHS.

"So again, I urge the BMA junior doctors committee to call off their strikes and show they are prepared to be reasonable, so that we can come back to the negotiating table to find a fair way forward."

Junior doctors have received a pay rise averaging nearly 9% this financial year.

The BMA has been seeking a 35% "pay restoration" as its starting position, but has said it is willing to negotiate.

Junior doctors make up around half of all doctors in the NHS and have anywhere up to eight years' experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.

Wes Streeting, Labour's shadow health secretary, described the latest round of strikes as having "a devastating impact on patients" but said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was refusing to negotiate.

NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said it is "extremely concerning" that strike action and disruption "are becoming a new normal".

"For the equivalent of more than one in every 10 days last year, the NHS has had to effectively stop carrying out most routine appointments to prioritise emergency care," he added.

Deputy chief executive of NHS Providers Saffron Cordery said: "We can't go on like this. Wave after wave of strikes saps the morale of staff and impacts patients.

"Trust leaders want to get on with the job of giving patients first-class care instead of having to spend too much time and energy planning for and coping with weeks of disruptive strikes."

Tenth round of junior doctors’ strike action set to go ahead from this weekend

February 22, 2024 Kathy Bailes News 

Strike action (image @BMA_JuniorDocs)

Strike action by junior doctors will take place from 7am on Saturday (24 February) to midnight on Wednesday (28 February).

The British Medical Association says action is being taken because while workload and waiting lists are at record highs, junior doctors’ pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.

Data shows NHS staff continue to contend with high demand for urgent and emergency care, with 89,377 ambulance handovers to hospitals last week, up 12% from 79,752 in the same week last year nationally.

By the end of the walk out hospital doctors will have taken 44 days or 1,056 hours of industrial action over the last year.

The British Medical Association says: “Progress was being made in talks but the Government failed to meet the deadline of 8 February to present a credible offer.

“In order to allow more time for negotiations to continue, we extended an offer to the Health Secretary to cancel this round of strikes before it was announced publicly if she agreed to extend the mandate for strike action for four weeks. Unfortunately she declined to do so leaving us no choice but to announce this final strike of our mandate.”

To mitigate the impact of strike action, trusts are putting in place measures to maintain care for those who need it urgently, and rescheduling planned appointments which are now unable to go ahead.

The previous round of industrial action by junior doctors took place in January. Junior doctors make up around half of all doctors in the NHS and have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.

The NHS is advising the public to use 111 online as the first port of call for urgent but not life-threatening issues during industrial action so that they can be directed to the best place for their needs. Patients who need medical care should continue to use 999 or go to A&E as normal.

Patients who haven’t been contacted to say their appointment has been cancelled should also attend as normal.

Junior doctors in the NHS in England say they are taking strike action to:

• achieve full pay restoration to reverse the steep decline in pay faced by junior doctors since 2008/9
• agree on a mechanism with the Government to prevent any future declines against the cost of living and inflation
• reform the DDRB (Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body) process so pay increases can be recommended independently and fairly to safeguard the recruitment and retention of junior doctors.

Hospitals in South Korea on high alert as doctors continue protests

The protesting doctors argue that the South Korea government should focus on improving doctors’ pay and reducing workloads.

February 23, 2024

The ongoing protest is causing widespread disruption to hospital services and ‘red alert’ situation across South Korea’s emergency departments. Credit: chrisdorney/Shuttertsock.com.

All the emergency departments across South Korea’s hospitals, except one, are on high alert after trainee doctors’ continued their protests against government reforms to increase medical school admissions.

The protests, that commenced earlier this week, are causing widespread disruption to hospital services in the country, as almost two-thirds of the country’s trainee doctors have participated in the walkout.

They have also resulted in ‘red alert’ situation across the country’s emergency departments, with many hospitals forced to turn away patients and cancel procedures.

South Korea’s health ministry confirmed that over 8,400 doctors, representing about 64% of all resident and intern doctors in the country, have joined the strike, a Reuters report noted.

The government has responded with threats of arrest for those leading the walkout.

The trainee doctors are protesting in response to the government’s decision to increase the medical school admissions to improve the healthcare system.

 

“Unbelievable but true” data show UK firms equipping Russia’s war machine

There but for the grace of British industry go I. / Russian defence ministry

By bne IntelliNews February 23, 2024

It may be difficult to believe, but it’s almost certainly true: UK firms are playing an important role in equipping Russia’s war machine.

That’s the conclusion of Sky News data analysis released on February 21, which found that British companies are exporting hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment and machinery to former Soviet satellite states including Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Georgia that is then re-exported to Russia, undermining the official UK sanctions regime applied to the Kremlin.

Drone equipment and heavy machinery are among the surging shipments with no other logical end-destination but Russia.

Exports to the small Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan—exposed last September for shipping onwards to Russia Chinese ball bearings that play a key role in the production of tanks—have risen at the breakneck speed of 1,100% since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exactly two years ago, while the growth rate in shipped British goods to Armenia is not far behind.

Among the consignments are large volumes of sensitive, "dual-use" goods that can be sold to civilian manufacturers, prior to being redirected and repurposed for use in making weaponry and equipment for the Russian armed forces.

The Sky analysis also showed that by far and away the biggest category of British goods being dispatched to the four Central Asian and South Caucasus nations assessed was "parts of aeroplanes, helicopters or unmanned aircraft".

British companies have reportedly exported £6m worth of these goods to the four nations, well above what they historically have tended to export to them. Other items sent are said to include data processing machines, aeronautic navigation equipment and radio navigation aids. So it appears that while entities such as the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) come up with new esoteric “smart sanctions” with which to hit Russia—bne IntelliNews reported earlier this month how turbine lubricants and their additives used in maintaining weapons were the latest target—UK sanctions enforcers are perhaps not quite keeping their end of the bargain in addressing sanctions-dodging that is staring them in the face.

According to Tom Keatinge of British defence and security think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), as cited by Sky: "It's absolutely a red flag if you're producing that kind of equipment [that we see in the analysis]... and you've got this big spike in exports to Kyrgyzstan.

"You've surely got to stop and ask yourself: why is that? Am I indirectly resourcing the Russian military? And clearly you don't want to be doing that. And indeed, in doing that, you're probably in breach of sanctions.

"The tragedy is that whenever the Ukrainians dissect a drone, or a cruise missile or communications equipment that they get their hands on, there are components in those bits of equipment that come from the EU, that come from the UK and come from the US, and have been manufactured since February 2022.

"So these are fresh exports, these are not legacy exports."

Robin Brooks, former chief economist of financial body the Institute of International Finance (IIF), has in the past year increasingly raised the alarm about rocketing exports to ex-Soviet nations that appear bound for Russia. He has also pointed the finger at Germany and Poland as other countries with many exporters indirectly sending large quantities of hardware to Russia.

"They're clearly getting an order from somewhere that is a Russian satellite that happens to be domiciled in one of these Central Asian countries," he said in response to the new analysis.

"What happens then? Maybe there's plausible deniability, maybe they know... all we know for sure is that the rise in export volumes that is happening is completely insane, and is inconsistent with any underlying data in these countries.

"So the only reasonable explanation is: Russia.

"From the Western European and especially the EU side, I would say, this has been going on for a while. It is at this point widely known in Brussels, and I think there is a key question as to why nothing is being done at a central EU level to stop this?"