NEW DELHI: Farmers in Punjab have begun putting up posters in a bid to stop Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from entering their villages ahead of this month’s general election, in which India’s ruling party is seeking a third consecutive term in power.
Banners reading “Farmers are barred from entering Delhi, BJP is banned from entering villages” refer to a February rally in which entry points to the Indian capital were blocked by police, as thousands of farmers tried to take their protest to the city after failed negotiations with the government.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched from the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where the country’s agriculture is concentrated, to demand higher income and minimum support prices — guaranteed prices for their crops at government-controlled wholesale markets — which were promised in 2022.
“They stopped farmers from boarding trains and buses. They forced farmers to break their journey to Delhi. If we don’t let farmers come to the national capital, then how can we allow you to come to our village?” Avik Saha, member of the national coordination committee of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, a coalition of over 40 Indian farmers’ unions, told Arab News.
“If you don’t allow us to come to our capital, just then see what we can do in our village. You close Delhi for us, then the villages are also closed for you. We have put up posters in almost all villages of Punjab.”
The SKM is a part of the alliance that coordinated a protest against laws deregulating the agriculture sector in 2021-22, when tens of thousands of farmers camped out on major highways leading to New Delhi for more than a year. Farmer groups estimate that 750 protesters have lost their lives — either killed in clashes with security forces or due to freezing cold when the rallies took place in winter.
While the government eventually rolled back the controversial legislation, it has yet to fulfill the promise to increase farmers’ incomes.
“Two years ago, they promised in writing that they would legalize laws promising minimum support price for farm produce, take action against those who killed farmers and many other things, but they have not done anything about it since,” Saha said.
“Now we have decided to continue on the democratic path. Since this is the election time and the BJP is expected to win, we are going to villages and to tell people what the real face of the party is, what their real intention is, and how they are anti-people, and how they just use people to stay in power. We are telling people not to vote for the BJP.”
The anti-BJP campaign in Punjab, a state of 28 million people, takes place as India prepares to hold a seven-phase general vote starting on April 19, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a third straight term.
Sarwan Singh Pandher, leader of the All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella organization representing 250 farmers’ groups, told Arab News they had decided to “question each and every” BJP leader seeking to visit Punjab villages for campaigning.
“If they won’t engage us in talks, then we will protest. This is our strategy. We want to show how undemocratic this party is. Recently, we wanted to march to Delhi to register our protest over the non-fulfillment of the promises made to us in 2022 when we ended the 13-month agitation over the three farm bills. But they stopped our march and created walls, plastered the road to Delhi with nails and created barriers everywhere. The BJP is not honoring the democratic rights of the people and farmers.”
Although it is confined to Punjab for now, farmers’ resentment resonates more widely across India’s huge rural hinterland, where the BJP government has done little to increase living standards.
Punjab contributes nearly two-thirds to the total production of food grains in the country, where 40 percent of people are dependent on agriculture.
“Farmers exert influence in the Punjab society, they have a presence all across. Naturally, the farmers’ no-entry call for BJP leaders in villages will create a buzz across the state and it might have some impact on the ground,” said Prof. Ronki Ram, a political scientist from Punjab University.
“Punjab always throws surprises, and it does not go with the popular national trend. You never know how this anti-BJP sentiment among farmers is going to play out in a crucial northern India state.”
The BJP said it was the farmers’ “democratic right” to protest, but they were not allowed to block the entry of party workers.
“I don’t think that the Election Commission of India and the state administration will permit them to block (us). They can show black flags or protest in a democratic manner, but they can’t stop any kind of gatherings and functions,” Sarwan Singh Channy, BJP spokesperson in Punjab told Arab News.
“It’s not only farmers in the villages, there are other people, too, and everyone has the right to participate in the election process.”
Farmers in Punjab bar India’s ruling party from entering villages ahead of polls
https://arab.news/gx25t
Farmers in Punjab bar India’s ruling party from entering villages ahead of polls
- Voting to begin on April 19 as PM Narendra Modi seeks third straight term
- BJP says farmers have the right to protest, but not to block the electoral process
Pro-Palestinian group sues UCLA over its handling of demonstrations
LOS ANGELES: A group of 35 pro-Palestinian students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and activists filed a lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles, over its handling of last year’s demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles comes days after the Trump administration joined a separate lawsuit filed in June against the university by Jewish students and a Jewish professor accusing it of failing to protect them from pro-Palestinian activists.
The demonstrations at UCLA became part of a movement last spring at campuses nationwide against the Israel-Hamas war. Last month, the Trump administration opened new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University.
UCLA was repeatedly roiled by protests and the way administrators were handling the situation. The tensions culminated the night of April 20 when a group of counterprotesters began violently dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment.
The lawsuit says UCLA failed to protect the demonstrators when dozens of people, some in white masks and some draped in Israeli flags and armed with fireworks, hammers, baseball bats and other weapons, attacked the encampment while the loud sound of crying babies played on the jumbotron.
Several protesters were injured during the attack, which happened after private security had left and police had not yet arrived, the lawsuit says.
“Encampment members witnessed the mob’s extreme violence, threats of violence, and UCLA’s failure to intervene,” it says. “They saw people get their heads split open, suffer from open wounds and concussions, scream in pain and fear, with fireworks and mayhem all around them.”
The university did not immediately respond Friday to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Los Angeles Police and California Highway Patrol officers arrested dozens of protesters on May 1 and 2 as the camp was cleared.
The episode led to the reassignment of the campus police chief and creation of a new campus safety office. A subsequent attempt to set up a new camp was also blocked.
The lawsuit also names the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and 20 people it describes as members of a “mob.” It seeks monetary damages for physical and psychological injuries suffered by the protesters.
Last June, three Jewish students and a Jewish professor sued the university saying it allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to block them from accessing classes and other parts of campus. The students alleged they experienced discrimination on campus during the protests because of their faith and that UCLA failed to ensure access to campus for all Jewish students.
A federal judge ruled in a preliminary injunction last year that the university cannot allow pro-Palestinian protesters to block Jewish students from accessing classes and other parts of campus.
On Monday, the Trump administration filed a brief supporting the Jewish students and professor in their case against UCLA.
“DOJ has thrown down the gauntlet: if university administrators aid and abet mistreatment of Jews, they will pay the price,” said Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and an attorney for the students and professor. “This is a wake-up call for every university that allows antisemitic hatred to fester unchecked. No Jewish student or professor should ever again face this kind of terror on their own campus.”
Legal experts say Trump official broke law by saying ‘Buy Tesla’ stock but don’t expect a crackdown
- “It will never be this cheap,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday. “Buy Tesla.”
NEW YORK: When a White House adviser in the first Trump administration told TV viewers to “Go buy Ivanka stuff,” top government lawyers sprang into action, telling her she had violated ethics rules and warning her not to do it again.
Government ethics experts have varying opinions on whether the 2017 criticism of Kellyanne Conway went far enough, but many agree such violations now might not even draw an official rebuke.
A week after President Donald Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla infomercial for Elon Musk’s cars, a second sales pitch by a US official occurred, this time for Tesla stock.
“It will never be this cheap,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday. “Buy Tesla.”
Government ethics experts say Lutnick broke a 1989 law prohibiting federal employees from using “public office for private gain,” later detailed to include a ban on ”endorsements.” Although presidents are generally exempt from government ethics rules, most federal employees are not and are often punished for violations, including rebukes like the one Conway got.
As of Friday, no public action had been taken against Lutnick and it was unclear whether he would suffer a similar fate.
“They’re not even thinking of ethics,” said Trump critic and former Republican White House ethics czar Richard Painter of administration officials.
Painter has equally low expectations of that other possible brake to future violations — public opinion: ”I don’t know if people care.”
In his first term, Trump opened his hotel near the Oval Office to foreign ambassadors and lobbyists in what many legal scholars argued was a violation of a constitutional ban against presidents receiving payments or gifts that could distort public policy for private gain. His company launched a new hotel chain called “America Idea” in hopes of cashing in on his celebrity. Trump even once proposed holding a G-7 meeting of world leaders at his then-struggling Doral golf resort.
The ‘Buy Ivanka’ rebuke
But the reaction to Conway’s “Ivanka stuff” comment suggested certain lines couldn’t be crossed.
Within days of Conway’s TV comments, the head of the federal ethics agency, the Office of Government Ethics, wrote a letter to the White House saying Trump’s adviser may have broken the law and urging a probe. A White House lawyer then met with Conway to remind her of the law and reported to the ethics office that she had assured him she would abide by it in future.
But this time, there is no head of the Office of Government Ethics. He was fired by Trump. Ditto for the inspector generals of various agencies who would head any investigation.
“What is likely to happen now? I really don’t know,” said Kedric Payne, chief lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, a non-profit watchdog that sent a letter to the government ethics office on Friday calling for an investigation. “We no longer have the head of the Office of Government Ethics to push the Commerce Department to make sure the secretary acknowledges the law.”
Payne said Lutnick’s comment on TV may seem like a small transgression but it could snowball into a bigger problem if not punished.
“It starts with one TV appearance, but can develop into multiple officials asking people to support companies and products,” Payne said. “If there are no consequences, you get into a danger zone of a corruption.”
Trump critics point to other signs that Trump is careless with the law and ethical norms, citing his pardons for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, a decision to allow his Trump Organization to strike business deals abroad and his attack on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act banning US company bribes abroad to win business.
Jelly beans and airlines
When it comes endorsing products, presidents used to be far more circumspect.
Their comments were mostly quick asides expressing opinions of taste, such as when Harry Truman called Pillsbury flour the “finest” or John F. Kennedy said United Airlines was “reliable.”
Ronald Reagan famously enthused about his jelly beans habit, remarking that they were the “perfect snack.”
Trump had five Teslas lined up in the White House driveway last week as he praised Musk’s company. Then he slipped into a red Model S he had targeted for personal purchase, exclaiming, “Wow. That’s beautiful.”
“Presidents are allowed to have personal opinions on products they like and dislike,” said ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark, referring to the Truman through Reagan examples. ”But what Trump did was transform the White House into a set for advertising the products of a private company.”
“It’s the difference between holding an extravaganza and holding an opinion.”
Calls for Musk investigation
In the aftermath of the Tesla White House event, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and three other senators wrote a letter to the Office of Government Ethics saying that, while presidents are exempt from ethics law banning endorsements, Elon Musk isn’t and calling for an investigation.
A spokeswoman from Warren’s office said the government ethics office had not yet responded about what it planned to do about the White House Tesla endorsement. The Office of Government Ethics itself said it would not comment on either the Warren letter or Lutnick’s TV appearance.
The Commerce Department did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.
Asked whether Lutnick would be reprimanded or an investigation opened, White House spokesman Kush Desai defended Lutnick, lauding “his immensely successful private sector career” and his “critical role on President Trump’s trade and economic team.”
Former White House ethics chief Painter says Democrats have also played loose with the ethics law.
He is harshly critical of the Clinton charity, the Clinton Foundation, which was taking donations from foreign governments when Hillary Clinton was the country’s chief diplomat as secretary of state. Painter also blasts former President Joe Biden for not removing his name from a University of Pennsylvania research institute when he was in office even though it appeared to be helping draw donations overseas.
But Painter says the slide from caring about ethics laws and norms to defiance has hit a new low.
“There’s been a deterioration in ethics,” he said. “What Biden did wasn’t good, but this is worse.”
Trump admits Musk ‘susceptible’ on China
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Friday that Elon Musk should not be allowed to see top secret US plans for any war with China, in a rare admission that his billionaire ally’s business links raised potential conflicts of interest.
Trump strongly denied media reports that the world’s richest man, who is now leading the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), would receive a classified Pentagon briefing on its war strategy.
Tesla and Space X boss Musk has major business interests in China but also has huge US defense contracts, while his status as an unelected adviser to Trump has raised concerns about his influence.
“I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war with China,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“Certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much... Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible perhaps to that.”
Trump, who was unveiling a contract for Boeing to build the next-generation F-47 fighter jet, described Musk as a “patriot” and hailed his efforts to slash back the US federal government, including the Defense Department.
Musk was at the Pentagon on Friday, but Trump attacked reports, first published in the New York Times, about the visit.
“They really are the enemy of the people,” Trump said of the Times, which reported Musk was to receive a briefing in a secure room dubbed “The Tank” on maritime tactics and targeting plans.
The paper said the briefing was called off after it was publicized.
The US increasingly sees China as its biggest rival and tensions have soared since Trump’s inauguration as the world’s two largest economies hit each other with tariffs.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hailed the “amazing visit” by Musk to the Pentagon.
“I look forward to continuing our work together,” Hegseth said on X.
Musk joined the chorus of criticism of the Times, labeling it “pure propaganda” on his social media platform X.
“I’ve been to the Pentagon many times over many years. Not my first time in the building,” he wrote.
Musk has long-standing business ties to China, however.
His automaker Tesla produces some of its electric vehicles at a huge so-called gigafactory in Shanghai and is trying to compete with fast-growing Chinese manufacturers.
The entrepreneur has become a cult figure in China and has fostered ties with its leadership. He has also suggested the self-ruled island of Taiwan should become part of China.
In the US, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Musk has no conflicts of interest, even as Musk leads a harsh overhaul of US government agencies that in some cases his companies have dealings with.
Musk’s SpaceX has US government defense contracts worth billions of dollars, including for launching rockets and for the use of the Starlink satellite service.
Trump has recently further blurred the line by promoting Tesla cars after attacks by vandals over Musk’s links to the White House. Trump suggested Friday that such vandals could be deported to prisons in El Salvador.
Democrats have meanwhile blasted Trump for handing administration policy to Musk despite him undergoing no background checks and heading companies with government contracts.
Italy’s Meloni torn between Trump and European allegiance
- Meloni was the only EU leader to attend Trump’s inauguration in January and has carefully steered clear of any criticism of the US president, even as he has hit Europe with tariffs and threatened to abandon Ukraine in its war with Russia
ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni finds herself playing a political balancing act as Europe moves to bolster its defenses.
A nationalist with deep admiration for US President Donald Trump, she is battling to reconcile the growing gulf between her ideological instincts, which lie with Washington, and Italy’s strategic ties to the European Union, analysts say.
Meloni was the only EU leader to attend Trump’s inauguration in January and has carefully steered clear of any criticism of the US president, even as he has hit Europe with tariffs and threatened to abandon Ukraine in its war with Russia.
While she has taken part in emergency talks with European partners on how to navigate the upheavals caused by Trump’s foreign policy, her engagement at times has seemed unenthusiastic, prompting critics at home to accuse her of isolating Italy within the EU.
Meloni, who has been in power since 2023, dismissed suggestions that she was under the sway of Trump as she headed into a summit of European leaders this week.
“I don’t blindly follow either Europe or the United States ... I am in Europe because Italy is in Europe, so it’s not like we’re thinking of going somewhere else, but I also want the West to be compact,” she told parliament.
Ever since Meloni founded her Brothers of Italy group in 2012, she has placed close ties with the United States at the heart of her foreign policy, while watering down initial, fierce euroskepticism.
Trump’s strong-arm tactics with old allies as he looks to enhance American power has wrong-footed pro-Atlanticists, while forcing Europe to hastily review its geopolitical options and shore up its defenses.
The turmoil has put on hold Meloni’s hopes of serving as a bridge between Europe and the White House, with Europe’s two nuclear powers France and Britain taking the lead in forging a response to Trump, while Germany grabs headlines with plans for a huge spending splurge to scale up its military.
“Right now, Meloni does not have the leverage to play a mediating role with Trump,” said Giovanni Orsina, a politics professor at Rome’s Luiss University.
“If Trumpism enters a second, more constructive phase, she might be able to play a role, leveraging political and personal affinities.”
Defense budget
Meloni last month called for an “immediate summit” between the US and its allies after Trump lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House, but Washington ignored her appeal.
Sources in Meloni’s office, who declined to be named, said the Italian leader was seeking a meeting with Trump later in March or early April, when the European Union is due to impose counter tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28 billion) worth of US goods in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminum.
In her address to parliament this week, Meloni questioned the wisdom of retaliatory tariffs and urged Europe to continue its military cooperation with the United States inside NATO.
Spooked by Trump’s suggestion he might not defend NATO members in future, the European Commission has laid out plans to boost the bloc’s military spending by 800 billion euros ($869 billion), while France has offered to consider extending its nuclear umbrella to European allies.
Migrant deaths hit record in 2024
- Asia was the region with the most reported fatalities, with 2,788 migrant deaths, followed by the Mediterranean Sea with 2,452 and Africa with 2,242
GENEVA: Nearly 9,000 people have died last year attempting to cross borders, the UN agency for migration said on Friday.
The death toll set a new record for the fifth year in a row.
The International Organization for Migration recorded at least 8,938 migrant deaths in 2024.
However, the actual death toll is likely much higher given that many deaths go unreported or undocumented, IOM said in a statement.
“The rise of deaths is terrible in and of itself, but the fact that thousands remained unidentified each year is even more tragic,” Julia Black, coordinator of IOM’s Missing Migrants Projects, said in the statement.
Asia was the region with the most reported fatalities, with 2,788 migrant deaths, followed by the Mediterranean Sea with 2,452 and Africa with 2,242.
IOM said there were also an “unprecedented 341 lives lost in the Caribbean,” 233 in Europe, and 174 in the Darien crossing between Colombia and Panama, a new record.
News of the record death toll comes only days after the agency announced it was suspending many “lifesaving” programs around the world and firing hundreds of employees due to US-led aid cuts impacting millions of vulnerable migrants worldwide.
