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Invisible in the pandemic fires, a slow burn of hunger and distress across India
Invisible in the pandemic fires, a slow burn of hunger and distress across India
As lockdowns get extended in cities, the working-class is back to cutting down on food. This time, there are no community kitchens to fall back on. 6 hours ago A non-profit organisation distributing free food to needy people outside a railway station in Mumbai on May 16, 2021. | Indranil Mukherjee / AFP
Sanju Devi stood wearily, clutching a cloth bag outside a ration shop. It had been a month since Delhi had gone under lockdown to contain a deadly surge of coronavirus cases and over three weeks since the prime minister had announced extra foodgrains for two months for 800 million people enrolled under the National Food Security Act.
“All the members of this Committee are pro-government and had been justifying the laws of the government.”
“We never demanded from Supreme Court to form committee, government is behind all these.”
In fact, the pushback seemed intense enough for one of the four named to the committee – Bhupinder Singh Mann – to recuse himself. “I will always stand with my farmers and Punjab,” he said. Mann had also been expelled from his own farm union, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mann), which renamed itself the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Punjab).
Other members of the committee claim they will carry out their task and begin speaking to the protesting farmers from January 19, though none of the farm unions have so far agreed to meet them.
The Political Fix: Why is BJP treating the Supreme Court like a tie-breaker for the farmers protest?
A newsletter on Indian politics and policy from Scroll.in. Jan 11, 2021 · 09:42 am
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The Big Story: Policy by proxy
As 2021 gets under way, after 45 days in the cold and despite eight rounds of talks with the government, tens of thousands of farmers continue their demonstration on the borders of Delhi. The farmers are protesting three agricultural laws passed in controversial manner by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government that seek to deregulate portions of the farming sector.