Farmers’ rally

“The government had also made lot of promises to farmers in last elections (2014), but it has not fulfilled those promises. And, by not implementing the Swaminathan Commission report, Modi ji has stabbed the farmers in their back (‘kisano ke peeth mey chhura bhonka hai’),” he alleged.

The AAP leader said the Union government should implement the report in five months, otherwise, the farmers will show their might in the 2019 elections.

“The affidavit filed in the court should be withdrawn and the report should be implemented, otherwise, farmers would wreak havoc in 2019 elections (‘kisan agle election mey qayamat dhah denge’),” he said.

“Farmers of the country are suffering .... We are here to wake up the government and ask them to take steps to resolve farmers’ issues or else we will throw them out in 2019. We will support the agitation unless the bills are passed in the parliament,” said NCP chief and a former agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, himself a large farmer.

CPM’s Sitaram Yechury accused the ruling BJP of attempting to pursuing divisive politics to divert the attention of farmers and the country from their governance failures. “We should rise above BJPs divisive politics and be united for speaking about farmers,” he said.

His rival back in Bengal, Dinesh Trivedi of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, was also present. “We consider this gathering as our parliament. Lets pass a resolution of demands which the other parliament has to support,” he said.

It is the second major farmer’s protest in the national capital in two months. At least 20 people, including police personnel, were injured in a clash between protesters and security personnel on October 2 at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh gate border on National Highway-24 when Delhi Police denied entry to thousands of farmers into the city.

The Delhi march comes just a week after farmers from all across Maharashtra marched to Mumbai to reiterate their demands for loan waiver and land rights among others, eight months after they were promised reforms by the BJP government.

And on March 12, more than 35,000 farmers from across Maharashtra, led by Left-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), took out a march’ from Nashik to Mumbai to press for their demands. Their 180km march over several days culminated in Mumbai on March 11.

In 2004, the National Commission for Farmers headed by MS Swaminathan submitted five reports, which contain a draft of recommendations that safeguarded the interest of farmers.

The formation of national and state disaster relief commissions that can declare a region or a crop as distress-affected, and provide necessary relief, is also among their demands.

The march has been organised under the banner of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an umbrella body of about 200 farmer organisations from across the country.

The farmers started their march on Friday morning after braving the night’s cold at Ramlila Maidan. Widows of farmers from Telangana, who committed suicide after they did not get adequate compensation from the government, are also participating in the protest.

A farmers’ group from Tamil Nadu had threatened to march naked if they are not allowed to go to Parliament on Friday. Last year, the group staged protests at Jantar Mantar with the skulls of eight farmers who killed themselves owing to farm losses. ber of Sentinelese to be about 250. In 2004, after the Tsunami, the Indian government , which conducted an aerial survery of the island to check on the islanders, estimated their number at between 40 and 200. The islanders shot arrows from their bows at the helicopter then too.

Chau says he saw no elderly Sentinelese, and guessed that this meant they lived separately on another part of the island. The women booed when they saw him, he noted. One of the juveniles, around 10 years old, shot an arrow at Chau but it hit his Bible and didn’t pass beyond page 933. The arrow-tip was metal, but very thin and sharp, Chau guessed. A generally held hypothesis suggests that the Sentinelese salvaged ships wrecked around the island for metal and made arrows from these.

Chau also writes about the gestures of the islanders. “Arms in the air meant unarmed and friendly. Pointing with hand/finger meant pointing a location. Arrows in bow meant ready to shoot you.”