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
German Chancellor Merz says Israel should bring hostages back alive
BERLIN: Germany wants to see the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, including Germans, brought back alive and Israel should consider this in its military actions in the strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday.
Asked whether Germany would implement an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Merz said that in principle it should be possible for an Israeli prime minister to visit Germany.
How this could happen would be clarified when necessary, he said at the joint press conference with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Berlin, adding that no bilateral visits by him or Netanyahu were currently planned.
Merz said future financial support for UNRWA, the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, was conditional on the organization being reformed.
Italy’s Meloni urges Israel's Netanyahu to respect international law in Gaza
- Giorgia Meloni said her conversations in recent months with Israel's Netanyahu were 'often difficult'
ROME: Israel must respect international law in its military operation in Gaza, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave increasingly “dramatic and unjustifiable.”
Israel invaded Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, and has recently announced plans for an expanded offensive to defeat militant group Hamas.
“Over the past months I have spoken with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu on several occasions, and the conversations have often been difficult,” Meloni told a question time session in the Italian lower house of parliament.
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities. The military campaign has left Gaza on the brink of famine, aid groups and international agencies say.
“I have always recalled the urgency of finding a way to end the hostilities and respect international law and international humanitarian law. A request that I renew today,” Meloni said.
Israeli strikes intensified this week, killing dozens in northern Gaza, locals have said.
French President Emmanuel Macron this week also criticized Netanyahu’s policy in Gaza, calling it shameful. The Israeli leader struck back accusing Macron of siding with Hamas.
Meloni’s government has been one of Israel’s most vocal supporters within Europe, but there has been growing unease within parts of her coalition over Israel’s relentless and long-running military campaign.
Japan grounds military training aircraft after crash leaves 2 crew members missing
- The crashed plane was a 36-year-old T-4 operated out of Nyutabaru Air Base
- It was not fitted with a voice recorder or a flight data recorder
TOKYO: Japan grounded most of its aging military training aircraft on Wednesday after one of the planes crashed minutes after take off.
Two crew are missing after the T-4 training aircraft operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force crashed after taking off from Komaki Air Base, in the central Japanese prefecture of Aichi, officials said.
The force said the plane was lost from radar two minutes after departure. The authorities are searching for the missing aircraft and its crew in an area near a reservoir known as the Iruka pond, officials said. The reservoir, in the city of Inuyama, is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of the air base.
The military has grounded temporarily nearly 200 T-4s until the cause of the accident is identified and safety checks and training are carried out, Hiroaki Uchikura, the air force chief of staff, told a news conference late Wednesday.
The crashed plane was a 36-year-old T-4 operated out of Nyutabaru Air Base, in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki. It was not fitted with a voice recorder or a flight data recorder.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani earlier Wednesday told reporters that parts of the aircraft have been found at the crash site. Officials were also preparing to collect fuel apparently leaked from the aircraft and floating in the reservoir, Nakatani said.
Lifesaving equipment and helmets of the crew were also found, Uchikura said.
Witnesses told the NHK national broadcaster that they heard a loud noise like thunder, followed by sirens of police cars and fire engines.
The T-4 was returning to Nyutabaru air base after its crew had earlier helped deliver a F-15 fighter jet to Komaki Air Base for scheduled maintenance, Uchikura said.
A captain with more than 1,000 hours of flight experience had piloted the F-15, while a first lieutenant piloted the T-4. Both were in the T-4 on their way back to Komaki when the incident happened.
The crash is the latest in a series of defense aircraft accidents in recent years.
In April 2024, two SH-60K navy reconnaissance helicopters crashed during nighttime anti-submarine training near Torishima island, about 600 kilometers south of Tokyo, leaving all eight crewmembers dead.
In 2023, an army UH-60JA Black Hawk helicopter on a reconnaissance mission crashed off a southern island of Miyako, with the loss of 10 crew.
UK’s Starmer condemns ‘attack on our democracy’ after fires at homes linked to him
- The remarks by Starmer during weekly prime minister’s questions were his first since the fires came to light earlier this week
- Police said they have been granted a further 36 hours to question the man
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told lawmakers Wednesday that recent arson attacks on properties linked to him represent “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for.”
The remarks by Starmer during weekly prime minister’s questions were his first since the fires came to light earlier this week.
The attacks were condemned by leaders across the House of Commons, including the Conservative Party’s Kemi Badenoch, who described them as “completely unacceptable.”
On Tuesday, London’s Metropolitan Police arrested a 21-year-old man in southeast London on suspicion of starting fires at Starmer’s private house, another property and a car connected to the politician. No injuries were reported from any of the fires.
In a statement Wednesday, police said they have been granted a further 36 hours to question the man, who is being held at a London police station. That means he can be questioned until Friday morning.
Police said the suspect was detained on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after an early morning fire Monday damaged the door of the house in Kentish Town, north London, where Starmer and his family lived before he was elected to lead the country last July.
Starmer moved with his family to the prime minister’s official Downing Street residence after taking office.
Counterterrorism detectives, who are leading the investigation because it involves the prime minister, are also looking into connections between a car fire Thursday near Starmer’s house and another fire Sunday outside a house nearby that has been converted into apartments and which he has a connection to.
Authorities are investigating whether there was state involvement as well as looking at other potential motivations.
“A key line of enquiry is whether the fires are linked due to the two premises and the vehicle all having previous links to the same high-profile public figure,” said Cmdr. Dominic Murphy, head of counterterrorism at the Metropolitan Police.
Starmer’s former house has attracted protesters in the past. Last year, three pro-Palestinian activists were arrested and charged with public order offenses after unfurling a banner covered in red handprints outside the building.
How escaped French drug kingpin evaded capture for months
- His escape left two prison officers dead and triggered a massive manhunt for the escaped convict dubbed “la Mouche“
- A network of accomplices suspected of organizing the escape, including a childhood friend of Amra and rapper Koba LaD, allegedly helped the fugitive stay off the authorities’ radar
PARIS: Managing to stay “one step ahead” of investigators, drug trafficker Mohamed Amra evaded capture for nine months following a deadly jail break one year ago that shocked France.
His escape left two prison officers dead and triggered a massive manhunt for the escaped convict dubbed “la Mouche” (The Fly).
On the run for nine months, he was re-arrested only in February, near a shopping center in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, then extradited to France.
On the one-year anniversary of the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday paid tribute to the first prison officers killed in France in the line of duty since 1992, visiting the site of the attack and highlighting new measures in France’s push to combat organized crime.
On May 14, 2024, a car crashed head-on into a prison van at a toll booth in France’s northern Normandy region.
Moments later, a second car pulled up and four armed men jumped out, killing prison officers Arnaud Garcia and Fabrice Moello and leaving three others wounded.
At the time of the deadly ambush, Amra already had a long history of convictions for violent crimes that started when he was only 15.
After the assailants whisked the 30-year-old Normandy native into a waiting vehicle, French authorities launched a massive operation to track down the man described as “public enemy number one.”
But a source close to the case said Amra was “always one step ahead.”
Public prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed that the Frenchman had been holed up in the city of Compiegne, then headed further north to Rouen before eventually making his way to eastern Europe.
A network of accomplices suspected of organizing the escape, including a childhood friend of Amra and rapper Koba LaD, allegedly helped the fugitive stay off the authorities’ radar.
Even so, “the net gradually closed in,” said Beccuau, with the escapee arrested by Romanian authorities nine months after his getaway.
Authorities then intensified the search for those who aided him in his escape from France to the eastern European country, arresting more than three dozen alleged accomplices.
Among those arrested are the six suspected attackers in the May 2024 assault found as far afield as Thailand, Morocco and Spain — one of whom died in an accident in November.
But a lawyer for one of the accused said there are “real doubts” about their involvement, with some “categorically denying the charges.”
As for Amra, his lawyer said, “no one can claim to know his role.”
“The fact that he benefited from the escape doesn’t necessarily mean he planned it or knew what methods would be used,” said Lucas Montagnier.
Macron, accompanied by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, visited several sites on Wednesday underlining the country’s push to clamp down on drug trafficking, including the headquarters of a new anti-organized crime taskforce, EMCO and the site of the May 2024 attack.
In late April, lawmakers approved a major new bill to combat drug-related crime, with some of France’s most dangerous drug traffickers facing being locked up in high-security units in prison in the coming months.
Amra was suspected of ordering hits from prison, including in the months leading up to his breakout, when a close associate issued a warning that “the Fly” was giving someone called “A” a week to pay up, or else.
A high-security prison in the northern Pas-de-Calais region is expected to house the 100 most dangerous drug traffickers beginning in late July.
With these measures, “the Republic is now putting all its resources” into ensuring that an escape like that of Mohamed Amra “never happens again,” Darmanin said on Tuesday on broadcaster France 2.
A plaque was also unveiled, honoring the two prison officers.
