Latest developments - with 25 updates. Sunday 7th Feb : Be Informed, Be Active
1. 4 farmers passed away today. Farmer Lakha Singh (60) s/o Baja Singh of village Kalodi, Sangrur has passed away at #TikriBorder. Singh was diabetic & suffered heart attack.
2. 60yr old Sukhmandir Singh passed away at Tikri Border today due to heart attack. Sukhmandir Singh was present at Tikri since Dec 3rd, 2020. He belonged to village Dhoorkot, of district Ransingh in Moga.
3. A third Farmer committed suicide by hanging himself at Bahadurgarh Morcha. The farmer is based out of Haryana.
4. Karambir Singh of Singhwal committed suicide because of Govt’s attitude towards farmers at Tikri border.
5. 12 days after Delhi tractor rally, among the farmers still untraceable is a 75-year-old farmer from Ludhiana. “He is not in any jail, not at Singhu, nowhere,” his daughter told @AarefaJohari, crying inconsolably.
6. A large number of farmers came to attend Kisan Mahapanchayat in Charkhi Dadri, Haryana today. Fourth day of Maha Panchayats with over 100,000 at each event. Due to Delhi Police making morcha sites into concentration camps. The change of policy of farmer leaders to start Maha Panchayats is rattling the BJP govt.
7. Another Maha Panchayat in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh is also attended by 100,000 farmers.
8. RSS has criticised Narendra Modi & Narendra Tomar on their way of dealing with #FarmersProtest & have said that “arrogance of power has gone into heads of Modi & Tomar.” RSS though concerned about mandate & vote bank suggested Modi to not force the laws on farmers.
9. After Ghazipur, Farmers at Singhu too have planted flowers close to barricades.
10. Nodeep kaur case is global. It trended 2nd in India and her case was widely shared in UK and North America. To all those who tortured her, the world is watching.
11. Jaago Party has written a letter to Haryana BJP CM Manohar Lal Khattar in reference to Nodeep Kaur. Manjit Singh GK has said that he has demanded her #ReleaseNodeepKaur . She belongs to Muktsar Sahib & was arrested from Kundli on 12th Jan.
12. Sukhdev Singh has been arrested from Chandigarh today by team of Delhi Police. There was a bounty of 50,000 on him, he was named along Deep Sidhu & others in connection with 26th Jan.
13. Three youth Harpreet Singh, Harjeet Singh and Dharmender Singh (all of west Delhi) have been arrested by Delhi police late last night. Police says that they appeared in video analysis. More arrests likely. FIR’s haven’t been registered as of this minute.
14. Internet has been restored to morcha sites.
15. At Singhu border, more locals complain about police than the farmers.
16. Rakesh Tikait has said that farmers won’t move an inch and if laws are not repealed till 2nd October, new strategies will be announced. He said They'll try to do Jats vs others. Earlier, they tried dividing Punjab-Haryana, Sikhs-Non Sikh., He hailed Sikhs saying 'No better ally than Sikhs in #FarmersProtest. Government is of the corporates. A corporate will never be loyal to citizens. Corporates will lock our food grains with same level of BARRICADING as it has been done in Delhi to stop protesting farmers. They'll hoard & increase prices.
17. Farmer leaders have urged people to call on their relatives in defence forces to show support in response to NIA notices & tags of traitors.
18. Former Chief economist of the World bank, Kausik Basu tweeted, “What can be more anti-national than being anti-farmer, especially in an emerging economy where agriculture is the backbone?”
19. Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s niece has reached #GhazipurBorder to express solidarity with the farmers. She said that denying bail to #NodeepKaur is a crime against women & lower castes. She expressed sadness on harassment of Nodeep in detention.
20. 3rd veteran Bollywood actor tweets in favour of the farmers, Mithun Chakraborty tweeted, “When India is dumb and foreigners raise their voice, we should not fight but support them.”
21. West London Labour MP Seema Malhotra recommends Loveena Tandon’s views on the Farmer Protests on Twitter. This results in a huge backlash as Loveena is the notorious UK based “reporter” for Ambani owned India Today media group who accuses UK Sikhs and Gurdwaray of being terrorists. Later Semma deletes the tweet and then talks of farmers issue.
22. Conservative MP Bob Blackman appears in BJP/ RSS event on YouTube praising the fascist group.
23. Saving Punjab - Punjab, Patiala, Ludhiana and Amritsar universities reported that in 2017 during the Akali-BJP coalition goverment, the yearly average of farmer suicides was calculated to 1,107 deaths. Using these figures as a guideline we can estimate there has been 22,141 farmer suicides from 2000 to 2020. Figures are estimated to be higher as many suicides in Punjab go unreported.
24. In UK, Boris Johnson tweets for Uttrakhand, but not farmers.
25. India passed farming laws without consultation or a transparent vote. These laws impact 250m people. That’s equivalent to: 3.7 x the population of the UK, 3 x the population of Germany, 5 x the population of Spain, 4 x the population of Italy, 75% of the population of the USA. This would never be allowed in any other country, but this is Modi’s India.
