Farm Reform Laws

To appreciate what is happening to agriculture and farmers in India, we must first understand how the development paradigm has been subverted. Development used to be about breaking with colonial exploitation and radically redefining power structures. Today, neoliberal dogma masquerades as economic theory and the subsequent deregulation of international capital ensures giant transnational conglomerates are able to ride roughshod over[Read More...]

It was in 1917 that Gandhiji visited Bihar for the first time. He was pursued and persuaded by one Raj Kumar Shukla, a peasant from Champaran, to come to the rescue of the peasants against their exploitation by the British planters under the ‘Teen Kathiya system’. The peasants in Champaran were forced to cultivate indigo in three kathas out of[Read More...]

US president Trump dismissed Christopher Krebs, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Reason? Krebs had disputed Trump’s contention that the presidential election had fraudulent ballots and software glitches that changed millions of votes. Krebs spoke his “truth”, which did not match president Trump’s “truth”. Krebs paid the price by losing his job. In our country in recent[Read More...]

K.P. Sasi is a film maker, Cartoonist and a writer SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER  
The post Farmers In The Short Run And The Long Run appeared first on Countercurrents.

India is witnessing the farmer protests which is being described as the largest protest in history. Delhi has become the epicenter of the protests with protests by farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh. About 1.2 million farmers are said to have thronged to the capital or in Singhur border along with about 96 thousand tractors. About 500 farm[Read More...]

There have been widespread and prolonged protests by farmers against three controversial farm laws enacted this year in a great hurry in India , the primary reason being that these are widely perceived by protesting farmers to be against their interests. This has been widely discussed, but it is necessary to look also at some of the wider implications of[Read More...]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Dec 15 Tuesday said that a conspiracy is going around Delhi. The PM was speaking at the inauguration of mega energy projects in Kutch, in his home state Gujarat. The PM’s statement came even as the farmers’ agitation across the country entered its 20th day. Five rounds of talks between the government and the farmers[Read More...]

I simply do not have an adjective in the dictionary to sum up the intensity of the farmers resistance in Delhi. History continues to be re-written like an inextinguishable light. It is reminiscent of a protracted war launched by an army against unflinching odds, confronting the enemy in the very belly. Each and every day it is further consolidating. With[Read More...]

In democracies leaders are called upon time and again to resolve protests of people. In fact this is a primary responsibility of democratically elected leaders and the sense of responsibility should be all the greater for leaders who have received  enormous respect and trust of people, like a leader like Shri Narendra Modi of India. Time and again people of[Read More...]

Since the beginning of the farmers’ agitation against the three new agri-laws, there has been a series of allegations and counter-allegations between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and opposition parties. The pace and volume of allegations and counter-allegations between the government and the opposition increased significantly after the opposition actively supported the Bharat Bandh called by the farmers’[Read More...]