The News – Fifty journalists killed in 2020: Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Paris – France, 30 December 2020. Fifty journalists and media workers were killed in connection with their work in 2020, the majority in countries that are not at war, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Tuesday.

The figure shows an increase in the targeting of reporters investigating organised crime, corruption or environmental issues, the watchdog said.

It highlighted murders in Mexico, India and Pakistan. Eighty-four per cent of those killed this year were “deliberately targeted” for their work, RSF said in its annual report, compared to 63 per cent in 2019.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/766562-50-journalists-killed-in-2020-rsf

Sikh24.com – ‘Efforts should be made to get Sikhi registered in other European countries’: Akal Takht Sahib on Sikhi getting official status in Austria

Sikh24 Editors

29 December 2020

Giani Harpreet Singh, SGPC-appointed acting jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib, has congratulated the Sikhs in Austria for getting Sikhi registered there at the official level and asked the Sikhs to take measures to get the same in other European countries.

The Sikh faith was registered as a religious denomination in the current month. With this provision, this faith has got official recognition in this country and the Sikhs living here will now be able to use Singh and Kaur after their forename, mention Sikhism as their religion, and register themselves as Sikhs, as per media reports.

There are seven gurdwaras in Austria out of which three are in Vienna with one each in Klagenfurt, Linz, Graz and Salzburg. The new status attained by the Sikh faith is the result of tireless efforts made by a Sikh committee that was set up by all the gurdwara managing panels here.

This committee comprised the Sikh youngsters.

Expressing pleasure over the development, Giani Harpreet Singh said, “Khalsa constituted by ninth Guru Sri Guru Gobind Singh is hoisting the Sikh flag all over the world. This is a matter of pride for all of us that Sikh faith has been registered in Austria thanks to the efforts of local Sikh Naujwan Sabha”.

“These Sikh youngsters initiated the drive in November 2019 to get the faith registered and they have turned successful only in a year. Certificate of registration was issued on 17 December 2020, while the name of the religion has started to be mentioned on the birth certificate of the Sikh children.

With this historic recognition, Austria has become the first country in Europe where the Sikh faith is registered officially, for which the entire community deserves to be congratulated”, he said.

“Sikh sangat settled in other countries of this sub-continent should also take inspiration from the sangat of Austria and make efforts to ensure similar status is given to the Sikh faiths in their respective countries”, he added.

It is worth mentioning here that Sikhs’ battle for a separate tick-box for them in the 2021 census form in the United Kingdom continues.

Of late, the High Court in London dismissed a challenge brought by a British Sikh group against the UK Cabinet Office for its failure to incorporate a separate Sikh ethnicity tick-box in the next census in 2021.

Justice Akhlaq Choudhury handed down his judgment to conclude that the census, as currently designed, will not prevent people from identifying as ethnically as Sikh as a write-in option.

Sharing the development with media, Bhai Onkar Singh Vienna informed that the Sikh Naujwan Sabha moved an application to get Sikhism registered as a religion in November-2019.

“On 17 December 2020, the Austrian government gave us the registration certificate,” he said while adding that the new born Sikh babies will now have a right to get registered their religion.

He further said that it is pride moment for all the Sikhs residing in Europe on having Sikhism recognized within a very short interval of time i.e. within 13 months only.

It is pertinent to note here that the Sikhs of almost all European countries including Italy have been making efforts to get official recognition for Sikhism for a long time but none of them have succeeded to date.

In some European countries like the Netherlands there is no registration of religions. As long a the religion and its followers keep within the law one is free even to start a new religion. In Belgium there are recognised and non-recognised places of worship but followers of non-recognised religions still have freedom of religion.
Man-in-Blue

‘Efforts should be made to get Sikhi registered in other European countries’: Akal Takht Sahib on Sikhi getting official status in Austria

Kentlive News – The Kent Sikhs who went above and beyond ‘during their month of sacrifice’ when crisis hit the M20

Gravesend’s Sikhs donated thousands over 3,000 hot meals to stranded lorry drivers caught up in the Port of Dover chaos, and here they explain why.

It already seems bizarre to think that thousands of truckers really did spend Christmas stranded on Kent’s roads.

France temporarily closed the border with the UK last Sunday (December 20), spooked by the new strain of coronavirus identified in the county.

Thousands of European truck drivers were left waiting at Manston, away from their families.

It was a humanitarian crisis on a scale the county had never seen before and one community in particular led the relief charge.

As soon as the news of the chaos at the Port of Dover reached them, Kent’s Sikhs sprang into action.

Working with Kent Police and charity Khalsa Aid, Sikhs from Gravesend’s Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dabar set about delivering hundreds of freshly made curries up and down Junction 10 of the M20.

They repeated this amazing act of kindness until the last of the lorries was over the channel.

We spoke to Jagdev Singh Virdee, the general secretary of the Gurdwara, who told us the colossal aid effort was just part in parcel of being part of the community.

Like everyone else in the county, the news of the trouble at the border caught Gravesend’s Sikh’s by surprise.

However, Jagdev says they were able to mobilise volunteers incredibly quickly to meet demand because they were practised in preparing large scale Langar’s from earlier in the pandemic.

He explained: “We were approached by Khalsa Aid who asked if we could assist with emergency Langar for the truckers. Our president Manpreet Singh was very keen to help and we organised our volunteers.

“We’ve been doing Langar all year and giving it to various vulnerable people and it’s something we do general so we knew what we were doing.

“We had it all packed up and ready to go by 4pm and it was delivered.”

After their initial effort on December 22, the community was again called on to supply food on Christmas Eve.

Despite not celebrating Christmas themselves, the volunteers at the Gurdwara realised the significance of the Christmas meal and so went above and beyond to make it special for the drivers.

Jagdev said: “On Christmas Eve we were called again. As we knew the drivers would be stuck on Christmas Day we thought we’d do something a little bit extra.

“As well as the 1,000 hot meals we cooked, we also provided thousands of goodie bags with mince pies and snacks inside.

“Sikhs may not celebrate Christmas but it is a time when everybody is off work and that week of the month is quite symbolic for the faith as well.

“December is the month of Poh for Sikhs and we observe and remember sacifices. The week from December 21 to 27 is where we commemorate and observe the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s four sons in 1507.

“While this sewa, selfless service, over the Christmas period has caught national and international attention, for Sikhs, doing this type of sewa is just a normal thing to do.”

‘If we see a need, we fill the gap and go beyond’

Coming to the aid of the stranded truckers was another good deed carried out by Gravesend’s Sikhs this year.

Throughout the pandemic, the Gurdwara community has offered free meals to vulnerable people and endeavoured to help local NHS staff as much as they can.

Jaqdev believes this multilayered approach to aid is intrinsic to the Sikh faith.

He explained: “Throughout the lockdown since March, the Gurdwara has been delivering food to vulnerable persons and NHS staff. Over 64,000 meals were provided in the first lockdown, 1,000 per day at the peak.

“When the local hospital ran out of scrubs for staff, the Gurdwara managed to source material and have 350 sets manufactured. We continue to provide food to families in need, We are finding that people are in a real need for the service.

“Working with other local organisations, the Gurdwara has also set up a helpline for anyone needing support with their health and wellbeing, and exercise classes for the elderly to keep them physically fit, initially at the Gurdwara and now online.

“As we see a need, we see what we can do to help fill the gap and go beyond.

“Considering what is happening in India at the moment, we are all in the frame of mind in helping wherever we can and however we can.”

https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/kent-sikhs-who-went-above-4839429

Scroll.in – ‘Example of democracy’?: Despite Modi’s claims, allegations of horsetrading mar Kashmir local polls

In the absence of an anti-defection law in the territory, the Centre-backed Apni Party has been courting winning candidates from other parties.

Safwat Zargar

On 26 December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed the recently held District Development Council elections in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir were an “example of democracy”.

But the same day, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference vice-president, Omar Abdullah, held a press conference at which he accused the government of “discrediting” democracy in the Union territory.

Winning candidates of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration “are being threatened, humiliated and coerced to join Apni Party, which is a B-team” of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Abdullah was quoted as saying.

The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, of which Abdullah’s National Conference is a member, is a conglomerate of Kashmiri regional parties and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

They are demanding the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution that were revoked in August 2019. The alliance won the highest number of seats in this month’s District Development Council elections.

This was the first direct election after the tumultuous changes brought about in 2019, but it was accompanied by allegations that leaders of the Gupkar Alliance were detained arbitrarily and that winning candidates are being offered inducements to switch parties.

At least six major leaders, three each from the National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party, have been in “preventive detention” since 21 December. Since the election results were announced, some winning candidates say they have been placed in police-protected accommodations.

During his press conference, Abdullah alleged that the government of the Union territory was using the police to pressure winning candidates from the Gupkar Alliance to join the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party.

“The prime minister says that these elections have given rebirth to democracy in J&K,” Abdullah told reporters. “So, we request that they should tell their administration, their police and civil officers not to interfere with the DDC results.”

Small numbers – big aspirations

The Apni Party is new to the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir. Consisting mostly of former Peoples Democratic Party and Congress members, the Apni Party was formed with the Centre’s blessings in March to “look beyond Article 370”.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the party is widely seen as an attempt by the Centre to nurture an entity in Kashmir that will not question its decisions of 05 August 2019.

On 22 December, when the results for the District Development Council elections were announced, the Apni Party’s performance was tepid. Of the 134 candidates it fielded across Jammu and Kashmir, it won only 12 seats, nine of them in the Kashmir Valley.

But with a series of defections across the Kashmir Valley over the past week, the Apni Party tally has reached 20.

The party claims that it is set to control at least four of the Union territory’s 20 district councils. The party seems to be banking on gaining the support of independent candidates and on defectors from other political parties. The party is using the absence of an anti-defection law in Jammu and Kashmir to its advantage.

“In Kashmir, we are sure about forming a majority in Shopian and Srinagar district and in Jammu, we are looking to control the district councils in Poonch and Reasi districts,” said Vikram Malhotra, spokesperson of Apni Party.

In order to reach the majority mark in the district councils, Malhotra said, the party will welcome to its fold successful independent candidates as well as winners who contested on the tickets of other parties.

The arithmetic of control

For the District Development Council elections, each of Jammu and Kashmir’s 20 districts was divided into 14 constituencies.

Each constituency will have one representative. For a party to control a district council and elect its chairman, it must have a minimum of eight seats.

Out of total 278 seats for which the results were declared on 22 December, the Gupkar Alliance won 110. It won a majority in six out of the ten district councils in the Kashmir Valley.

In three other districts, the alliance is one seat short of getting a majority. In one of these, Bandipora, the result for one seat is yet to be declared.

With the support of the Congress, which won 26 seats, the Gupkar Alliance could easily take control of the councils in Shopian, Baramulla and Bandipora districts. In Srinagar district, where the alliance won only four seats, it could gain control by getting four independents on its side.

In Jammu, the Gupkar alliance did not win a complete majority in any of the district councils. But it could gain control of at least three of the region’s ten district councils if it manages to form a coalition with the Congress and independents.

But the leaders of the Gupkar Alliance in Kashmir allege that they are not being allowed to discuss options with independent candidates or other parties.

“The administration has now taken on the responsibility of trying to collect independent candidates for the BJP and its recently formed subsidiary,” Omar Abdullah said in a tweet on December 23, a day after election results were announced.

“It seems the government doesn’t have enough to do & has branched out in to this line of work as well.”

In some cases, the administration was openly stopping representatives of the Gupkar Alliance from meeting independent candidates, Abdullah alleged.

A former National Conference legislator from Shopian, Showkat Ganie, was “taken away by the police to stop him [from] contacting the independent DDC members elected in his district”, he alleged in another tweet.

Defections in Shopian

Abdullah’s 26 December press conference was dramatic. He brought up the defection of his party’s candidate Yasmeena Jan to the Apni Party. Jan had contested from Imam Sahib-I in South Kashmir’s Shopian district.

Abdullah played a recording of a phone call involving her husband that he said was proof of pressure being brought on winning Gupkar Alliance leaders.

“He was asked to make his wife join Apni Party forcibly in lieu of getting her brother-in-law released from detention,” Abdullah alleged. “I don’t know the reasons on whose command this all is being done.”

He added: “This way democracy is being murdered in J&K. I wonder if Parliament has an anti-defection law, and the Assembly too has it, why the same is not being implemented in J&K and those switching sides being disqualified.”

The National Conference is not the only party to lose candidates after the results. A Congress candidate and a Peoples Democratic Party candidate in Shopian have also joined the Apni Party.

Switching sides

In Shopian, the alliance had won seven seats and was just one short of a majority. With Jan’s defection, the party’s seat count had dipped to six.

After that, Abdul Rashid Lone, a Peoples Democratic Party candidate switched to Apni Party as well, reducing the share of Gupkar Alliance seats to five. However, the alliance was able to attract two independents on its side, maintaining its original score of seven seats in the district.

The only party to gain from these defections is the Apni Party. Along with the defections from three parties, National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and Congress, the party has been able to get an independent candidate on its side.

This has taken the Apni Party’s tally from two seats to six seats in Shopian district. It needs only two more seats to take control of the district council.

According to the Apni Party, the winners switching over to it were only “loosely aligned” to the parties on whose tickets they contested.

“The people who are joining our party were not the committed members or cadre members of these parties,” claimed Malhotra, the spokesperson of the Apni Party. “They were just loosely aligned to them. We don’t expect a committed member of these parties to join us”

Though he conceded that these defections would not have been possible if the anti-defection law was implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, Malhotra denied any use of force or money.

“There’s no doubt these people contested on the mandate of these parties [Gupkar Alliance] but when they see an option of a bright future in Apni Party, they switch over,” he said. “You can’t project it like that they are being forced and lured by money.”

Meanwhile, the National Conference said it is looking into how to address the issue of defections. “Within the party, we are discussing how to go forward on that. Obviously, it will include legal aspects as well,” said Imran Nabi Dar, the party’s spokesperson.

“In every direct election across the country, the anti-defection law automatically applies. What’s the reason they are singling out DDC elections? It’s very strange.”

Before Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was revoked last August, the erstwhile state had a stronger and stringent anti-defection law than the rest of the country. But since it was split and downgraded into two Union territories, the administration has not taken any decision on implementing anti-defection law.

On December 28, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, P K Pole told reporters in Srinagar that he would check with the Rural Development department if the anti-defection law could be enacted in Jammu and Kashmir.

‘No space to us’

A day before the scheduled counting of votes for district development council elections on 22 December, Jammu and Kashmir police detained three senior leaders and close aides of Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, a member of the alliance.

On 23 December, two National Conference leaders, including a former Member of Legislative Council Showkat Ganie, were detained in Shopian. Two days later, another National Conference leader was detained in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district.

“There’s a pattern to these detentions,” said a National Conference leader. “All these detentions are taking place in districts where the alliance doesn’t have a clear majority.

The idea is to keep our workers and leaders in detention and allow the Apni Party to lure other successful candidates and engineer defections.”

So far, the government has not given any official reason for detaining these leaders. On 26 December, Reuters reported at least 75 other Kashmiri political activists had been taken into preventive detention after the conclusion of the election.

The detainees included separatist leaders as well as those from banned outfits like the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Another news report put the number of those detained to around 100 and said they will either face preventive detention or be booked under Public Safety Act to prevent “breach of peace”.

The families of the people detained have been kept in dark about the reasons for which their relatives have been taken into custody.

“We haven’t been given any explanation or document as to why they are detaining them,” said a relative of one of the detained leaders in Srinagar, requesting anonymity.

“We tried to reach out to the administration but there’s no response.”

Even some winning candidates of the Gupkar Alliance have faced restrictions. In Shopian, Raja Waheed, a successful district development council candidate from Peoples Democratic Party, has been placed in a government accommodation under police protection since 24 December.

“I was at home. The police picked me up from home and put me here,” Waheed told Scroll.in. “Since then, I am here.”

Waheed shares the police-protected accommodation with an independent candidate from the district who won a seat. “He’s not allowed to move out at all,” said Waheed.

Had he been free, Waheed said, he would be on ground and making efforts to gather support in favour of the Gupkar Alliance. “But by putting us here, they are not giving us chance to speak to people and canvas for support,” he said. “We are unable to communicate.”

Scroll.in sent written queries to Rohit Kansal, spokesperson of Jammu and Kashmir government about the detentions in the Valley following the elections, asking why anti-defection law is not implemented in Jammu and Kashmir and about allegations against administration of working in favour of Apni Party.

This article will be updated if he responds.

Meanwhile, the Apni Party says more successful independent and party candidates are likely to join it. “The talks are on,” said party spokesperson Malhotra. “In coming days, you’ll see many more independent and other party’s candidates joining us. All of them will be taken.”

He added that his party has the allegiance of several independent candidates across the Union territory. “Many independents were affiliated to us and they will also help us in staking claims for a majority in district councils,” he added.

https://scroll.in/article/982686/example-of-democracy-despite-modis-claims-allegations-of-horsetrading-mar-kashmir-local-polls

The Statesman – Amartya Sen married thrice – left India – has no right to speak: BJP’s Dilip Ghosh

Dilip Ghosh’s remark has come at the time when Amartya Sen was accused of illegally registering a part of Visva-Bharati University’s land under his own name.

Kolkata – West Bengal – India, 29 December 2020. Dilip Ghosh – BJP state president in West Bengal, on Tuesday launched a scathing attack against Nobel laureate Amartya Sen amid the recent Visva-Bharati University row.

Hitting professor Sen below the belt, Ghosh said that the former didn’t have any moral right to speak anything about West Bengal because he married thrice.

“I don’t want to attack personally to a person who has married three women of three different faiths. He has no moral right to say anything,” Ghosh was seen saying on Bengali news channel ABP Ananda.

“He has fled the country. He is never seen with the people of this country. He was nowhere to be found during a crisis like Amphan or pandemic. We are not here to take moral lesson from such a person,” the Medinipur MP added.

A debate has been stirred in West Bengal after Visva-Bharati University VC alleged that Professor Sen, an allumni of the institution, had identified himself as “Nobel laureate Amartya Sen”. A claim refuted by the Bharat Ratna.

The situation escalated further when VBU authorities wrote to the West Bengal government on Thursday, claiming that the internationally-famed economist had illegally registered a part of the university’s land under his own name.

Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, took the matter in her own hands and penned down a letter to Professor Sen. She said that the accusations had been levelled against him because he “isn’t inclined towards BJP’s ideology”.

“We all salute Amartya Sen. Just because he isn’t inclined towards BJP’s ideology, they’re levelling such allegations against him,” Banerjee said.

“We all know about your family’s deep and organic bonds with Santiniketan.

Your maternal grandfather, revered scholar Kshitimohan Sen, was one of the early leading settlers in Santiniketan, while your father Ashutosh Sen, a noted educationist and public administrator, had his famed house Pratichi built in Santiniketan about eight decades ago.

Yours has been a family weaved in the culture and fabric of Santiniketan, inalienably.”

Reacting to her letter, Professor Sen wrote back to Banerjee and thanked her for standing beside him.

In a short email, he wrote, “I am very happy indeed to get your supportive letter. I am not only most touched, but also very reassured that despite the busy life you have to lead, you can find time for reassuring people under attack.

Your strong voice, along with your full understanding of what is going on, is, for me, a tremendous source of strength.”

Amartya Sen married thrice, left India, has no right to speak: BJP’s Dilip Ghosh

The Tribune – Milk of kindness flows unabated in memory of Sahibzadas

Parvesh Sharma – Tribune News Service

Sangrur – Panjab – India, 27 December 2020. Following Gurus’ preachings, many villages are organising langars (community kitchen) in the memory of Sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh apart from supplying ration and milk to protesters on the Delhi border, petrol pumps and toll plazas every day.

Hundreds of commuters partake of kheer, parshad, pakoras, hot tea, besides meal, daily at these sites.

Despite being hit by Covid-19, ongoing farm stir and a slump in earning, there is no dearth of essential commodities at various locations.

“We are only serving what God has given us. Apart from ration, our village supplies 100 litres of milk to the protesters at Kalajhar toll plaza, 200 litres to Delhi protesters and 200 litres for langar daily.

We have enough stock and may start supply to another location, if required,” said Avtar Singh from Gharachon village while serving kheer to commuters on the Sunam-Bhawanigarh road.

They started the langar three days ago and would continue the service for two more days. A group of women, who came to cook chapatis, said the langar dedicated to Sahibzadas was an annual affair, but this year’s farm stir had inspired them to go the extra mile.

We are supplying 100 litres of milk to protesters at Kalajhar toll plaza, 200 litres to Delhi protesters and 200 litres for langar daily. We may start supply to another location.

“I have two buffaloes, but am not selling milk these days as all goes to protesters at various locations. There are more like me,” said Balwinder Kaur, an elderly woman.

Similar is the story of Kothe Akalgarh and Kothe Gobindpura villages in Barnala district. “Apart from langar near Dhanaula on the Sangrur-Barnala road, we have been supplying ration and milk to protesters at Badbar toll plaza and petrol pump near here ever since the beginning of the protest,” said Gurwinder Singh, a resident from Kothe Akalgarh village.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/milk-of-kindness-flows-unabated-in-memory-of-sahibzadas-190289

Goodnewsnetwork.org – Sikhs hand out thousands of meals to stranded truckers – Then Fill 1,000 Sandbags For Flood Victims

A group of volunteers who handed out thousands of meals to stranded truckers in Kent are now helping flood victims hit by Storm Bella.

Good News Network

Kent & Bedfordshire – UK, 28 December 2020. Members of Khalsa Aid International dished out 1,000 pizzas and 1,500 bowls of curry and pasta to truck drivers in the days running up to Christmas.

But within hours of leaving the location on the M20 on Christmas night they got a call from flood-ravaged Bedfordshire, and set off the very next day.

They sourced four tons of sand and set about filling and distributing 1,000 sandbags by the end of the day.

“We’re all about being there when help is needed, which is now,” said Indy Narwal, a senior volunteer at Slough-based aid group.

“Sikhs are very giving people, and after such a bad year, we want to do all we can to help. If they need more help in the future, we’ll be back.”

Indy, 31, described the 12-hour days which began 12 December and ended Christmas Day when they handed out Dominos pizza and hot meals provided by a local Gurdwara led by Guru Nanak Darbar in Kent.

“A hot meal goes a long way when you’re feeling stranded and lonely, and I hope we lifted the spirits of the lorry drivers,” he said.

But no sooner had they arrived home on Christmas night they were already gearing up for their next mission.

By 2pm the next day, the Boxing Day holiday in Britain, a team of 12 volunteers from Khalsa Aid had filled 1,000 sandbags and worked until 8pm that night to distribute them.

“We’ve helped out with floods before, such as in Somerset in 2014, so we knew what we needed to do, and just dug in.”

More than 1,500 truckers were caught in gridlock limbo waiting to leave the UK after France shut its border due to coronavirus fears, and a new outbreak in England.

Some drivers found places to stay, while others spent nights in their vehicles, waiting for information on when they could get home.

Thousands of Covid-19 tests were being administered in an effort to clear the highway, so that those with negative test results could cross the border.

“That’s what we’re all about – being there when help is needed, even in the wind and rain.

Sikhs Hand Out Thousands of Meals to Stranded Truckers–Then Fill 1,000 Sandbags For Flood Victims

The Hindu – ‘Political demands, parties have backed peasant movements’, says historian Mridula Mukherjee

Historian draws parallels between Punjab’s kisan movements pre-Independence and ongoing protests

Damini Nath

New Dehli – India, 28 December 2020. From public contributions for the cause to political support, several parallels exist between the ongoing protests by farmers at Delhi’s borders and the peasant movements of the first half of the 20th century in Punjab, said historian Mridula Mukherjee.

Delivering the Professor S C Mishra Memorial Lecture organised by the Indian History Congress Professor Mukherjee spoke on the “legacy of heroic non-violent resistance” in Punjab’s farmer protests.

From ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ movement in 1907, peasant struggles in Punjab were always linked with political parties.

However, today, the farmers protesting against the recently-passed agriculture reform Acts have tried to distance themselves from political parties, Prof Mukherjee said in the online address.

Referring to this, she said: “Success of a movement, whether or not it is a movement of peasants heavily depends on what kind of support you can garner from other sections of society, from broader political forces, from political parties.

Which is why today the government is so keen to say political parties should not be seen in this, as if there is something wrong about movements being connected to political parties or political parties coming to play a role.

Somehow even the peasant movements themselves are wary of this because they fear that this will be used against them.”

But, she added, the history of peasant struggles showed that political parties were involved.

In another parallel, the ongoing protest sites at Singhu and Tikri borders of Delhi, where large groups of farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been camped for a month, have seen individuals and groups donating everything from blankets to food to massage chairs.

Professor Mukherjee, a retired Jawaharlal Nehru University professor, said the traditional pattern from pre-Independence of political workers going house-to-house to collect grains and other things for langars before any big event has continued.

She said the groups of protesters travelling through villages would not carry food, but would rather be supported by the community on the way.

“This is the pattern you are seeing today on a bigger scale. We are so unfamiliar that is seems odd. It is part of the living tradition,” Prof. Mukherjee told The Hindu.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/political-demands-parties-have-backed-peasant-movements-says-historian-mridula-mukherjee/article33438330.ece

The Nation – The CIA is running death aquads in Afghanistan

Reports of atrocities supported by the American intelligence agency underscore the need to end America’s longest war.

Jeet Heer

The war in Afghanistan, now in its 19th year, is the longest and most intractable of America’s forever wars. There are now American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan who were born after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the ostensible casus belli.

The American public has long ago grown tired of the war. A YouGov poll conducted in July of 2020 showed that 46 percent of Americans strongly supported withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, with another 30 percent saying they “somewhat” approved of troop withdrawal.

But this 76 percent majority is deceptive. Given the fact that America has a volunteer army and American casualties in Afghanistan remain sporadic, this is not an issue that the public is passionate about.

An inchoate dissatisfaction is compatible either with disengagement or just a lack of interest.

Conversely, those in the national security establishment who do passionately support the war are able to thwart political leaders who want a draw-down.

Under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, presidential efforts to disengage from Afghanistan and the larger Middle East were met with resistance from a foreign policy elite that sees any withdrawal as a humiliating defeat.

Trump tried to resolve the contradiction between his desire to remove troops and the foreign policy elite’s commitment to the Afghan war by loosening the rules of war.

The thinking of the Trump administration was that by unleashing the military and intelligence agencies, it could subdue the Taliban, thus preparing the way for a draw-down of troops.

Special priority was given to CIA-run covert operations using Afghan paramilitaries, with the belief that this would lead to a more sustainable war that didn’t require American soldiers to participate in fighting.

A report in The Intercept, written by reporter Andrew Quilty, documents the horrifying consequences of this policy: Afghan paramilitary units, known as 01 and 02, have acted as death squads, launching raids against civilians that have turned into massacres.

Many of these raids have attacked religious schools, the famous madrassas, leading to the death of children as young as 8 years old.

According to Quilty, “Residents from four districts in Wardak, Nerkh, Chak, Sayedabad, and Daymirdad spoke of a string of massacres, executions, mutilation, forced disappearances, attacks on medical facilities, and airstrikes targeting structures known to house civilians.

The victims, according to these residents, were rarely Taliban. Yet the Afghan unit and its American masters have never been publicly held accountable by either the Afghan or U.S. governments.”

These raids all involve Afghan paramilitaries who are outside the control of the Afghan government and working in conjunction with American handlers who provide high-tech aid and direction, Quilty reports.

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/cia-death-squads-afghanistan/

Sikh24.com – BJP loses prominent Sikh face over contentious farm laws

Sikh24.com Punjab Bureau

Chandigarh – Panjab – India, 27 December 2020. In a big jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, its major Sikh face and former Member of Parliament (MP) Harinder Singh Khalsa has quitted the saffron party in protest against three farm laws recently legislated by its government in Centre.

Before joining the BJP in presence of the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Khalsa was Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP from Fatehgarh Sahib.

He had won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on AAP’s ticket, but was suspended from the party in 2015. Earlier, he was elected as MP from Bathinda in 1996 on the ticket of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

While resigning from the party, Khalsa also disclosed its bad intentions towards the farmers stir. He said the BJP government had chalked out several strategies to remove the agitation of the farmers on the borders of national capital Delhi.

He said the government will get this agitation prolonged and then break unity in the farmers and defame them. “If it still fails to remove the protests, it would not hesitate to use power against the farmers”, he added.

He also disclosed that the BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal had told the BJP high-command that the laws had made it difficult for them to enter the villages in view of the anger over the laws.

Notably, Khalsa is considered close friend of Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, former IFS officer and Indian envoy in United Nations (UN). Puri played key role in taking Khalsa to the saffron party.

He came in the limelight first when he resigned from the post of Indian envoy in Norway in protest against army attack on Sri Harmandar Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib in June 1984.

Khalsa started his career as an English lecturer at the G.G.N. Khalsa College, in Ludhiana. During his academic career (1964-1974), he published two textbooks: A Manual of General English and Social Science.

In May 1974, he joined the Punjab Civil Services. In July 1974, he joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and worked as a Second Secretary in Jakarta. Later, he served as a First Secretary in Bangkok and Norway.

As the Congress government filed some cases against him after he resigned from the post in Norway, he decided to stay there, running a small eating joint and working as a postman in Norway.

He returned to India in 1990, after being assured that the cases against him would be dropped.

During 1990-91, he served as the Chairman of Punjab Human Rights Organization, an NGO that highlighted the excesses committed by the state government during the anti-insurgency operations. During 1991-03, he served as a secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

BJP losses prominent Sikh face over contentious farm laws