Unseasonal rains & strong winds have ruined fields in southwest Punjab. Bathinda saw rainfall 3,900% above normal over 24-30 March, though officials say only 10% of farms severely affected.
Support prices kept unchanged, BKU (Charuni), BKU (Tikait) & SKM said they will hold Kisan Mahapanchayats in January if demands aren't met even as CM Khattar announced a review panel.
By saving the farmers' protest from the clutches of a violent Republic Day rally and taking on the Adityanath govt in UP, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait has left Indian liberals in a fix.
Chaduni met Congress & AAP leaders to get them to join hands with the farmers’ agitation, but the protesters have long held that their movement is apolitical.
In a short press statement released Thursday, Mann said he was ‘ready to sacrifice any position so as not to compromise the interest of Punjab and farmers of the country’.
BKU (Ugrahan) stirred up a row after demanding release of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam & others, but its leadership remains defiant about it, says what they did was integral to the protests.
Angry farmers, on the road for 13 days, say they have left behind produce, farms and cattle to protest in Delhi as they are unhappy with Modi government.
The main enemies of grassroots vigilance are personality cult, loyalty to party 'high command', sycophancy and a controlled economy where permit-licence is a pre-condition to economic survival, Minoo Masani wrote in 1989.
CM Yogi Adityanath claims that from being called a ‘bimaru’ state, UP is now among the top-3 economies in India. The 2026 Budget session of the UP assembly is currently underway.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
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