UP farmer destroys crop to protest against Modi govt's farm laws

Agencies

February 21, 2021

Lucknow, Feb 21: In a shocking incident, a farmer in Bijnor district destroyed his standing wheat crop on his six-bigha farmland to mark his protest against the new farm laws.

A video clip showing Sohit Ahlawat, 27, riding a tractor over his wheat crop at Kulchana village in Chandpur tehsil went viral on messenger apps.

The incident took place on Saturday.

Two days ago, during a Kisan Mahapanchayat, the Bharatiya Kisan Union leader, Rakesh Tikait, had urged farmers to give importance to the agitation and, if need be, destroy their crops.

On Saturday evening, Tikait said Ahlawat's video had pained him but more farmers would do the same "if the government does not listen to us".

"The government has forced us into a situation where farmers are destroying crops, which is not a good sight. I was personally pained to see the video, but this is not what I meant when I asked farmers to be ready to sacrifice one season's crops. 'Is tarah nuksan ka matlab nahin banta hai' (one shouldn't incur losses like this)," Tikait said at Uttar Pradesh Gate.

Ahlawat, whose father Sanjeev Kumar owns over 40 bigha farmland, is heard saying in the video, "You can see my standing wheat crop. I am destroying it in front of everyone in support of the ongoing farmers' protest. I do not want these farm laws to be imposed upon us."

State president of BKU's youth wing Digambar Singh alleged, "The cops have started harassing the farmer who destroyed his standing wheat crop. But farmers will not bend before the government and its police."

The local police refuted Singh's allegations, saying they only went to the farmland to "check the site".

Bijnor Superintendent of Police Dharamveer Singh said that there is no pressure on the farmers in the district.

Chandpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate P.K. Maurya said, "We had sent revenue department officials to check and talk to the farmer's family. They said that it was a symbolic protest against the farm laws. We are on alert and trying to talk to everyone."

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Trump’s associates told to avoid racist language making them ‘look like Nazis’

News Network

November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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