BUSINESS OVER HUNGER WILL NOT BE ALLOWED, SAYS TIKAIT

Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday reiterated farmers’ demand for a law on MSP for crops along with the repeal of the three agriculture-marketing laws and said that business over hunger will not be allowed in the country.

“Desh mein bhook pe vyaapaar nahi hoga. Bhook kitni lagegi anaaj ki keemat utni hogi. Desh mein bhook se vyaapaar karne walon ko baahar nikaala jaaega (There will not be business over hunger in the country. If hunger goes up, price of crops will be decided accordingly. Those wanting business over hunger will be driven out of the country),” Tikiat said at Ghazipur border, which has become one of the epicentres of the farmers’ protests at Delhi borders.

Tikait’s comments came in reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address in Rajya Sabha where he assured farmers that the MSP will last forever. “MSP tha, MSP hai, aur MSP rahega (MSP was there, MSP is there and MSP will continue)… Affordable ration for the poor will continue. Mandis will be modernised,” Modi said while requesting farmers’ unions to call off their 75-day agitation.

Tikait, who has now become the face of the agitation, said the farmers’ protests have highlighted that there is no law on MSP because of which traders loot them by buying crops at lower prices. He said the price of crops will not be decided the way the rates of a flight ticket fluctuate several times a day.

Seoul, Feb. 8: One of South Korea’s wealthiest people, the billionaire founder of the country’s biggest mobile messenger operator KakaoTalk, promised on Monday to give away more than half his wealth.

The decision by selfmade Kim Beom-su, worth around $9.4 billion, is an unusual one for the world’s 12thlargest economy, where business is dominated by sprawling familycontrolled conglomerates.

“I have pledged to donate more than half of my assets throughout my life to solve social issues,” Kim said in a message sent to all of Kakao’s employees.

Kakao, founded in 2010, has a range of mobile offerings and its flagship messaging application is installed on more than 90 per cent of phones in South Korea.

Forbes described Kim the nation’s “biggest gainer” during the Coronavirus pandemic last year.

His firm benefited from social distancing measures that saw more use of its messaging app, e-commerce platform, and online games. —