NEW DELHI: Farmers across India have blocked roads and railways in a nationwide shutdown to protest new farm bills, which they say will leave them at the mercy of market forces.
Hundreds of farmer organizations across India supported by opposition parties are protesting new legislation that was passed on Tuesday despite resistance from all opposition parties. The protest is concentrated in the country’s north, the “food bowl of India,” where farm yields are high.
“Farmers, who are already in a precarious situation, face new uncertainty with the bills, which leave us at the whims and fancies of market forces,” Sunil Pradhan of the Indian Farmers Union in the northern Uttar Pradesh state told Arab News.
He is protesting, along hundreds of others, in Noida city.
“How can we trust the words of the government that the market will be good for us? We have seen its past schemes, which sound good on paper but which actually turn out to be hollow,” Pradhan said.
The opposition wanted the new bills to be subject to vote, but the government did not allow it.
“The haste with which the government passed the bills without going in for voting on such crucial matters raises questions about the intent of the government,” Satish Mishra, a political analyst from the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.
The new legislation exposes the agriculture sector to market forces. It has a provision to allow farmers to sell their produce directly to private players and allow corporate investment in farms. Until now, produce prices have been fixed by the government under the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is usually higher than market rates.
Farmers fear that once the free market assumes a bigger role in the agriculture sector, the government would withdraw from the MSP.
The largest protests have been held in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, with farmers blocking roads and railway tracks.
“If we don’t protest, our survival will be at stake. The government cannot withdraw its hands from the procurement, and we cannot be left at the whims of the market forces,” Balbir Singh Rajewal, the Punjab-based leader of the Indian Farmers Union, told Arab News.
Jagdish Awana, a Haryana-based farmer, raised questions why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not consult the main stakeholders while introducing the reform.
“Modi has been in power for the last six years. He never discussed these reforms with farmers. Suddenly, during the pandemic, when people are struggling for their livelihood, he brings in such a far-reaching change that will disturb everything that has been built for decades,” Awana said.
In response to the protests, Modi said on Friday that some actors are deliberately confusing the farmers and telling them lies about the bill.
“Some people…these days are engaged in confusing the farmers because of their political selfishness. These people are spreading rumors,” he said in a meeting with the ruling party workers in Delhi.
“In the name of farmers and laborers, governments were formed many times in the country, but what did they get? Just a tangled web of promises and laws, a trap that neither the farmer nor the laborer could understand,” the prime minister said.
According to the opposition Congress party, which supports the protests, the Modi regime is determined to “enslave” the farmers.
“The new agriculture laws will enslave our farmers,” Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party’s former president, said in a Twitter post on Friday.
Punjab-based agriculture expert Devinder Sharma said that farmers fear the new legislation will pave the way for the corporatization of the agriculture sector.
“Farmers fear that the new bill will lead to the corporatization of agriculture. They will be pushed out and deprived of the assured prices that they get for wheat and paddy, the main staple food in the country,” he told Arab News.
“Only 6 percent of farmers get MSP from the government, and the rest of India is dependent on the market. If the markets are really benevolent, then tell me why Indian agriculture is in deep crisis. The government should have expanded the model that benefits 6 percent of farmers to the rest of the country rather than the other way around.”
Protests are also taking place in the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and the eastern Indian states of Bihar, Orissa and Bengal.
“The bill keeps in mind the benefits of the market, not the larger interests of the farmers. Bihar, which removed MSP in 2006, has seen the fate of farmers changed. The situation worsened, and that’s why many people migrate from Bihar to other states to work in the field,” Sharma said.
According to Professor Ronki Ram, a political analyst from Punjab University, the protests may lead to a realignment of political forces in India’s agriculture-dominated states.
“The farmers’ solidarity will have its political impact. This might lead to a new political alternative and a realignment of political forces in north India, where farmers hold sway,” he said.
Indian farmers block roads, railways in nationwide shutdown to protest reform
https://arab.news/vrpxg
Indian farmers block roads, railways in nationwide shutdown to protest reform
- Farmers demonstrate against government’s move to open agriculture to private and corporate sector
- Protest is concentrated in country’s north - the “food bowl of India”
Taiwan says 41 Chinese military aircraft, ships detected ahead of Lai US stopover
- The figure was the highest in more than three weeks, according to a tally of figures released daily by Taiwan’s defense ministry
The figure was the highest in more than three weeks, according to an AFP tally of figures released daily by Taiwan’s defense ministry.
China insists self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory, which Taipei rejects.
To press its claims, China deploys fighter jets, drones and warships around Taiwan on a near-daily basis, with the number of sorties increasing in recent years.
In the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. on Friday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had detected 33 Chinese aircraft and eight navy vessels in its airspace and waters.
That included 19 aircraft that took part in China’s “joint combat readiness patrol” on Thursday evening and was the highest number since November 4.
Taiwan also spotted a balloon — the fourth since Sunday — about 172 kilometers west of the island.
UN plastic treaty talks push for breakthrough as deadline looms
- South Korea is hosting the fifth and final UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting to agree globally binding rules on plastics this week
BUSAN, South Korea: Negotiators at the fifth round of talks aimed at securing an international treaty to curb plastic pollution were striving on Friday to speed up sluggish proceedings and reach a deal by a Dec. 1 deadline.
South Korea is hosting the fifth and final UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting to agree globally binding rules on plastics this week.
Until Thursday, several delegates from around 175 countries participating had expressed frustration about the slow pace of the talks amid disagreements over procedure, multiple proposals and some negotiations even returning to ground covered in the past.
In an attempt to speed up the process, INC Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso is holding informal meetings on Friday to try and tackle the most divisive issues.
These issues include curbing plastic products and chemicals of concern, managing the supply of primary polymers, and a financial mechanism to help developing countries implement the treaty.
Petrochemical-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia strongly oppose efforts to target a cap on plastic production, over the protests of countries that bear the brunt of plastic pollution such as low- and middle-income nations.
While supporting an international treaty, the petrochemical industry has also been vocal in urging governments to avoid setting mandatory plastic production caps, and focus instead on solutions to reduce plastic waste, like recycling.
The INC plans an open a plenary session at 7 p.m. (1000 GMT) on Friday that will provide an indication of how close the talks have moved toward a treaty.
New Zealand navy vessel hit reef, sank after ‘autopilot’ error: inquiry
- Dozens of sailors were rescued from the HMNZS Manawanui in October after it struck a reef
- Vessel burst into flames and finally sank south of Samoa’s most populous island Upolu
WELLINGTON: A New Zealand navy vessel plowed into a reef near Samoa and sank because its crew mistakenly left it on “autopilot,” a military inquiry found on Friday.
Dozens of sailors were rescued from the HMNZS Manawanui in October after it struck a reef, burst into flames and finally sank south of Samoa’s most populous island Upolu.
One of just nine commissioned ships in New Zealand’s small naval fleet, the Manawanui had been dispatched to map the ocean floor.
A military court of inquiry on Friday found the survey vessel had been scuttled because its “autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been.”
“Remaining in autopilot resulted in the ship maintaining a course toward land, until grounding and eventually stranding.”
Crewmembers noticed the ship had veered off course and tried to change direction, believing they had lost control due to a “thruster control failure.”
But they forgot to check if the autopilot had been disengaged first, the tribunal found.
Rather than steering away from danger, the ship “started to accelerate toward the reef.”
Defense Minister Judith Collins said the debacle had “really knocked Navy for six.”
“It was a terrible day. The navy and the defense force are not shying away from this.
“It was extremely disappointing. But that’s what has happened.”
The shipwreck settled on a stable section of reef some 30 meters below the surface.
It was carrying 950 tonnes of diesel when it sank, stirring fears of an oil slick that could kill wildlife and taint crucial food sources.
New Zealand’s navy has said previously that the main fuel tanks appeared to be intact.
Salvage crews were working to retrieve the fuel without major leaks.
No one died in the incident, although a small number of sailors suffered minor injuries.
Protesters clash with police in Georgia over government’s EU application delay
- Government suspends EU accession talks until 2028
- Georgian Dream has deepened ties with Russia amid EU tensions
TBILISI: Police clashed with protesters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi early on Friday, after the country’s ruling party said the government would suspend talks on European Union accession and refuse budgetary grants until 2028.
The country’s interior ministry said three police officers were injured.
Police ordered protesters to disperse, fired water cannon and deployed pepper spray and tear gas as masked young people tried to smash their way into the parliament. Some protesters tossed fireworks at police while shouting “Russians” and “Slaves!“
Georgia’s relations with the EU have deteriorated sharply in recent months as Brussels has alleged that the government had resorted to authoritarian measures and adopted pro-Russian stands.
Thousands of pro-EU protesters had blocked streets in the capital before the altercations began. The country’s figurehead president accused the government of declaring “war” on its own people and confronted riot police, asking whether they served Georgia or Russia.
The Georgian Dream governing bloc accused the EU of “a cascade of insults,” saying in a statement it was using the prospect of accession talks to “blackmail” the country, and to “organize a revolution in the country.”
As a result, it said: “We have decided not to put the issue of opening negotiations with the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028. Also, we refuse any budgetary grant from the European Union until the end of 2028.”
The South Caucasus country of 3.7 million has the aim of EU accession written into its constitution and has long been among the most pro-Western of the Soviet Union’s successor states.
With months of downturn in relations between Tbilisi and Brussels, the EU had already said that Georgia’s application for membership was frozen.
Georgian Dream says it is not pro-Russian, and that it is committed to democracy and integration with the West.
It says it still wants to join the EU eventually, but has repeatedly engaged in diplomatic feuds with Brussels in recent years, whilst deepening ties with neighboring Russia.
There was no immediate formal comment from the EU on Georgian Dream’s statement. But an EU official said the impact of Thursday’s move was huge, adding the government was doing what the EU had feared and had hoped it would not.
Opinion polls show that around 80 percent of Georgians support EU membership, and the bloc’s flag flies alongside the national flag outside virtually all government buildings in the country.
The pro-Western opposition reacted to Georgian Dream’s announcement with fury as protesters massed. Local media reported that protests that erupted in provincial cities.
’WAR’ AGAINST PEOPLE
Giorgi Vashadze, a prominent opposition leader, wrote on Facebook: “the self-proclaimed, illegitimate government has already legally signed the betrayal of Georgia and the Georgian people.”
President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of Georgian Dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said the ruling party had “declared not peace, but war against its own people, its past and future.”
Zourabichvili’s term ends in December, and Georgian Dream has nominated a former lawmaker with hard-line anti-Western views to replace her.
The opposition says that an October election, in which official results gave the Georgian Dream bloc almost 54 percent of the vote, was fraudulent and have refused to take their seats. Western countries demand a probe into irregularities.
Both Georgian Dream and the country’s election commission say the election was free and fair.
Earlier on Thursday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists that EU membership might harm Georgia’s economy, as it would require Tbilisi to cancel visa-free agreements and trade deals with other countries.
The EU gave Georgia candidate status in December 2023, but has said that a raft of laws passed since by Georgian Dream, including curbs on “foreign agents” and LGBT rights, are authoritarian, Russian-inspired, and obstacles to EU membership.
Foreign and domestic critics of Georgian Dream say the party, which is seen as dominated by its billionaire founder, ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, is steering Georgia back toward Moscow, from which it gained independence in 1991.
Russia and Georgia have had no formal diplomatic relations since Moscow won a brief 2008 war, but have had a limited rapprochement recently.
Opinion polls show most Georgians dislike Russia, which continues to back two breakaway Georgian regions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking during a visit to Kazakhstan, praised the “courage and character” he said Georgian authorities had shown in passing the law on foreign agents, which domestic critics have likened to Russian legislation. (Reporting by Felix Light Additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels Editing by Mark Trevelyan, Andrew Osborn, William Maclean, Frances Kerry and Ron Popeski)
Russian air defenses destroy, down 30 Ukrainian drones in Rostov region
Russian air defenses destroyed or downed 30 Ukrainian drones in southern Rostov region early on Friday, Regional Governor Yuri Slyusar said.
Slyusar, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said some private homes in two villages had sustained some damage, but there were no casualties.
