GHAZIABAD, India: Indian farmers burnt copies of the government’s new agricultural laws on Wednesday, pressing on with their protest against the reforms despite a decision by the Supreme Court to postpone implementation while their grievances are heard.
Tens of thousands of farmers have been camped on the outskirts of the capital, New Delhi, for almost two months, protesting against what they say are laws designed to benefit large private buyers at the expense of growers.
The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi denies this, saying the legislation is required to reform an agricultural sector beset by waste.
At several protest sites on Wednesday, farmers threw copies of the three new laws on bonfires lit for the Hindu Lohri mid-winter festival.
“These laws are not in farmers’ interests,” said Gursevak Singh, 32, one of the protesters involved in the burning at a protest site in Ghaziabad, a satellite city of New Delhi.
“We want the government to use their brains and repeal these laws.”
Unrest among India’s estimated 150 million farmers represents one of the biggest challenges to Modi’s rule since his Bharatiya Janata Party won a second term in power in 2019.
One of the BJP’s coalition partners resigned when the laws were first introduced in September, and the issue risks uniting India’s often-fractioned opposition.
India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of the laws while a four-member committee looks into the protesters’ grievances.
But farm leaders have refused to cooperate with the committee and say they will intensify their protests, including around Republic Day celebrations in the capital later this month.
“We expect to mobilize up to two million farmers across the country on January 26,” Kulwant Singh Sandhu, general secretary of Jamhuri Kisan Sabha, one of the main farm unions, told Reuters.
Farmers have consistently called for the total repeal of the laws, though the government says there is “no question” of this happening.
Eight rounds of talks have failed to break the deadlock. The two sides are next due to meet on Friday.
Indian farmers burn legislation in show of defiance
https://arab.news/vsupf
Indian farmers burn legislation in show of defiance
- Farmers have consistently called for the total repeal of the laws, though the government says there is “no question” of this happening
- Eight rounds of talks have failed to break the deadlock
US immigration agent fatally shoots woman in Minneapolis, mayor disputes government claim of self-defense
- A visibly angry mayor said federal immigration agents were responsible for sowing chaos in the city
MINNEAPOLIS: A US immigration agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in her car in Minneapolis on Wednesday amid an immigration enforcement surge, according to local and federal officials, the latest violent incident during President Donald Trump’s nationwide crackdown on migrants.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey adamantly rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the agent fired in self-defense, saying he has seen video of the shooting that directly contradicts what he called the government’s “garbage narrative.”
“They’re already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” he said at a press conference. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly — that is bullshit.”
A visibly angry Frey said federal immigration agents were responsible for sowing chaos in the city, telling ICE: “Get the f*** out of Minneapolis.” But he also urged residents to remain calm.
The shooting drew protesters into the streets near the scene, some of whom were met by heavily armed federal agents wearing gas masks who fired chemical irritants at the demonstrators.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer began firing after a “violent rioter” attempted to run over ICE officers.
“The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased,” she wrote. “The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”
Frey said the woman did not appear to be trying to ram anyone in the video he had reviewed. The city police chief, Brian O’Hara, told reporters that the preliminary investigation indicated the woman’s vehicle was blocking traffic when a federal officer approached on foot.
“The vehicle began to drive off,” he said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
Trump, a Republican, has deployed federal immigration agents to Democratic-led cities across the US through his first year in office in a crackdown against illegal immigration, leading to backlash from some residents.
The administration planned to send approximately 2,000 agents to Minneapolis, according to news reports, following allegations of wide-scale welfare fraud involving Somali immigrants, whom Trump has called “garbage.”
The identity of the shot woman was not publicly disclosed. US Senator Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, said on X that she was a US citizen. The police chief said the woman, who was married, was not a target of immigration operations.
WITNESSES DESCRIBE SHOOTING
A dark-colored SUV with a bullet hole through its windshield and blood splattered across the headrest was seen rammed into a pole on the snowy street where the shooting took place.
Venus de Mars, a 65-year-old Minneapolis resident who lives near the site of the shooting, described seeing paramedics perform CPR on a woman collapsed next to a snowbank near the crashed car. Shortly after, they loaded her into an ambulance that drove away without its sirens on.
“There’s been lots of ICE activity but nothing like this,” de Mars said. “I’m so angry. I’m so angry, and I feel helpless.”
The deployment of agents to Minneapolis follows Trump’s recent attacks on Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the state’s large population of Somali Americans and Somali immigrants over allegations of fraud dating back to 2020 by some nonprofit groups that administer childcare and other social services programs.
At least 56 people have pleaded guilty since federal prosecutors started to bring charges in 2022 under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, announced this week he would not seek a third term as governor, saying he did not have time both to address the fraud scandal and to campaign.
Immigration agents have been involved in other similar shootings during the Trump administration’s crackdown.
During “Operation Midway Blitz,” Trump’s immigration enforcement surge in Chicago last fall, ICE agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, a 38-year-old Mexican national in a Chicago suburb. Gonzalez, a cook and father of two with no criminal record, was shot in his car after agents attempted to arrest him.
A DHS statement said Gonzalez had steered his car at agents, dragging one officer and causing him to fire out of fear for his life. Police bodycam footage obtained by Reuters complicated that narrative, with the ICE agent saying his injuries were “nothing major.”
Border Patrol agents also shot a woman in Chicago in October. DHS said the shooting was in self-defense after the woman, Marimar Martinez, rammed into the agents’ vehicle. But her lawyer said video footage showed the agents hit her car before opening fire.
In December, ICE agents fired at a van carrying two men they were targeting for arrest, leaving one with bullet wounds. A DHS statement said the men drove the van at ICE officers, prompting them to fire in self-defense.
