The Evening Wrap: Farmers to step up stir, talk to NDA allies

The Hindu Newsletter - Here are the biggest news stories of the day [The Hindu Logo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( Sunday 20, December 2020 [alt_text]( The Evening Wrap Here are the biggest news stories of the day [alt_text]( Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Farmers to step up stir, talk to NDA allies The leaders of the [Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SMK), a joint front of farmer unions, on Sunday announced a further intensification of their agitation](, including relay hunger strikes at protest sites and reaching out to constituents of the ruling-National Democratic Alliance (NDA). At a press conference in Singhu, a protest site at the Delhi-Haryana border, SMK leaders said they would reach out to the NDA constituents, appealing to them to compel the BJP to withdraw the three legislations. They also appealed to people across the country to hold a fast on December 23 as a mark of gratitude towards farmers, and to clang utensils on December 27 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Mann Ki Baat” radio address, as a mark of protest. The SMK announced that toll plazas would be made free in Haryana for three days, from December 25 to 27. It said people in Punjab would gherao Income Tax offices to protest against the raids on the arthiyas (commission agents) in the State. Stating that people supporting the agitation, including artistes and singers, were being “troubled,” the farm leaders said the government should refrain from such action. Farmers want better APMCs, not ‘mukti’ from them, says AIKMS [ The farmers’ group also accused the government of propagating “falsehood” to claim that the laws would help farmers. ] The farmers’ group also accused the government of propagating “falsehood” to claim that the laws would help farmers. In a related development, the Left-affiliated [All-India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS) today released a document countering the claims of the Modi government](on the three contentious farm laws, and stressing that the government’s arguments for not repealing the legislations were “deceptive”. It also accused the government of propagating “falsehoods” to claim that the laws would help farmers. In a 24-page document, the central executive committee of the AIKMS said the farmers had demanded improvement in the functioning of the mandis under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act and not “mukti” (freedom) from them. “The government is trying to deny Minimum Support Price (MSP) at C2+50% [50% more than the weighted average cost of production] in the name of keeping food costs low for the poor. Giving C2+50% as MSP will not make food costly if input costs are decreased proportionally. This will afford savings for farmers and agriculture will become sustainable. But government wants to allow corporates to sell costly inputs and keep the food costs low by depriving peasants of profitable MSP. Thus, at both ends the peasant is squeezed and corporate profit is secured,” the document said, adding that monopsony i.e. one buyer and many sellers, cannot create a condition for peasants to bargain and fix prices. On the government’s claim that farmers would not lose their land under the new laws, the document argued that Section 9 of Contract Act provides for peasants to take loans from other ‘debt instruments’, as separate and parallel deals. For making payment to the sponsor company for the inputs provided by it to the peasant, he will have to take loans and his land will be mortgaged, the AIKMS said. Offering counters to 16 claims of the government point-by-point, the document said, “It [the government] is tricking the people by saying that middlemen’s commission charges raise food prices. The commission charges are only 8.5%, but the difference in what a farmer gets and the consumer buys is mainly due to high transport costs, illegal taxes extracted by the officials, and hoarding and black marketing.” Nepal PM Oli recommends dissolution of Parliament, President Bhandari announces fresh election [ Nepal’s prime ministerial candidate and Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) Khadga Prasad Oli. File ] Nepal’s prime ministerial candidate and Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) Khadga Prasad Oli. File In an emergency Cabinet meeting held on Sunday morning, [Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli recommended dissolution of the Parliament and called for a general election](. The decision was ratified by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari in an official announcement in the afternoon. The President has called a two-phase election to be held on April 30 and May 10, 2021. The dramatic decision came after weeks of tension with challenger Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, who has been demanding that Oli change his style of governance. The decision was followed by the deployment of quick action forces across Kathmandu and other major Nepalese cities and towns. Oli’s government in recent weeks was unable to pass politically sensitive decisions because of the opposition in the Standing Committee of the Nepal Communist Party where Prachanda’s section is in majority. Sunday’s decision to dissolve the Parliament has drawn strong criticism from the Opposition and members of the ruling coalition. “The decision is unconstitutional as there is no provision in our 2015 Constitution to dissolve a Parliament that is functioning perfectly well. The problem was inside the Nepal Communist Party and the Prime Minister cannot attack the Parliament for his inability to deal with intra-party dissidents,” said Rajendra Mahto of Janata Samajvadi Party. Mahto said Nepal faces an uncertain future because of Oli’s decision. “The decision amounts to a coup,” he said. Political leaders, including former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, have cautioned about the future of Nepal in the backdrop of Sunday’s Cabinet decision. “President Oli’s recommendation is extremely unfortunate and is against the interest of democracy. All political parties of Nepal must protest against this development,” he said. Nepal held elections in November-December 2017 and the elected candidates in the Pratinidhi Sabha were expected to serve a full 5-year term. BJP, TMC spar over Tagore as Shah visits Visva Bharati [ Union Home Minister Amit Shah. File ] Union Home Minister Amit Shah. File On Sunday, as [Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Visva Bharati, set up by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921]( in Santiniketan, the Trinamool Congress held protests outside Jorasanko Thakurbari in Kolkata, alleging an insult to the revered poet. While Shah participated in a number of events at Visva Bharati, senior Trinamool Congress leader and Minister in West Bengal government Subrata Mukherjee held a press conference in Kolkata alleging that the BJP had disrespected the poet. Referring to some posters – they had come up in Santiniketan on Saturday – which showed Shah’s photograph positioned above a sketch of the poet, Mukherjee said the BJP has tried to demean the poet. The posters were removed after the placement of the photographs was pointed out. “They (the BJP) have demeaned Rabindranath... we are shocked and therefore, we wanted to protest. They will break statue of Vidyasagar and outsiders will come belittle Rabindranath. We cannot allow this. So several of our party supporters are protesting at Jorasanko Thakurbari,” Mukherjee said. Morasko Thakurbari is the birth place of Rabindranath Tagore. Earlier in the day, interacting with journalists in Santiniketan, Shah had spoken of the rich literary and cultural legacy of Tagore, who had inspired both Gandhiji and Subhas Chandra Bose. Vajpayee, Sharif spoke over phone in the midst of Kargil War, says book [ ] [Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif]( spoke to each other on the phone at least four to five times during the course of the Kargil War, with the former veering to the view that Sharif had been bamboozled by the Pakistani army (then headed by General Pervez Musharraf) into the conflict. A new book on the late Prime Minister’s tenure at the helm of affairs in India, called Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India, by former bureaucrat Shakti Sinha, goes on to say that the communication was kept up after a telling incident between Sharif and R.K. Mishra, former head of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), the man selected for back channel talks to end the conflict. “…Sharif’s position was a tenuous one, and in a later meeting, he indicated to Mishra that they should take a walk in the garden, obviously suspecting that his own house was tapped. When Mishra reported this to Vajpayee, the latter took this as an indication that Sharif was more a prisoner of circumstances than anything else,” says the book. “Vajpayee must have spoken to Sharif 4-5 times during the one and a half month period from mid-May to 4th July when the Pakistani PM publicly committed to President Clinton that Pakistan would withdraw its forces to its side of the LoC,” the book further states. One of these calls occurred in mid-June from Srinagar, after Vajpayee had made a visit to Kargil. “On his arrival in Srinagar Vajpayee asked me to connect him to Sharif. My small team and I tried but we just could not get through. Then one of the local officers present informed us that dialing Pakistan (+92) from Jammu and Kashmir was barred. The telecom authorities were told to open the facility for a short while, so that the two prime ministers could talk,” says the book. Sinha had served as Vajpayee’s private secretary for many years, including in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) during the conflict. The book also talks about two telephonic recordings that Arvind Dave, chief of Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency, brought to Prime Minister Vajpayee. “Arvind Dave, the R&AW chief, came up with two telephonic recordings between the Pakistani Army chief Pervez Musharraf, and his chief of general staff, Lt. Gen. Mohammad Aziz. It was clear that the Pakistan Army was involved, with the Mujahideen playing a minor role, if any,” says the book. The tapes were shared with the media later, but were also smuggled into Pakistan for Sharif via the diplomatic route. The book offers an insider’s perspective on the eventful years when Vajpayee was Prime Minister. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of coronavirus cases reported from India]( stood at 1,00,46,014 at the time of writing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,45,669. In Brief: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a surprise visit to Gurudwara Rakabganj in the national capital and paid tributes to Guru Tegh Bahadur for his supreme sacrifice. Guru Tegh Bahadur’s death anniversary was observed on Saturday. The Prime Minister’s visit to one of the most popular gurudwaras in Delhi assumes significance as it comes amid intense protests by farmers, especially from Punjab, against the three farm laws enacted by his government. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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