Farmers’ Protest in India – Price of Failure Will Be immense
Colin Todhunter
Globally, there is an ongoing trend of a handful of big companies determining what food is grown, how it is grown, what is in it and who sells it. This model involves highly processed food adulterated with chemical inputs ending up in large near-monopoly supermarket chains or fast-food outlets that rely on industrial-scale farming.
While the brands lining the shelves of giant retail outlets seem vast, a handful of food companies own these brands which in turn rely on a relatively narrow range of produce for ingredients.
At the same time, this illusion of choice often comes at the expense of food security in poorer countries that were compelled to restructure their agriculture to facilitate agro-exports courtesy of the World Bank, IMF, the WTO and global agribusiness interests.
In Mexico, transnational food retail and processing companies have taken over food distribution channels, replacing local foods with cheap processed items, often with the direct support of the government. Free trade and investment agreements have been critical to this process and the consequences for public health have been catastrophic.
Mexico’s National Institute for Public Health released the results of a national survey of food security and nutrition in 2012. Between 1988 and 2012, the proportion of overweight women between the ages of 20 and 49 increased from 25 to 35 per cent and the number of obese women in this age group increased from 9 to 37 per cent. Some 29 per cent of Mexican children between the ages of 5 and 11 were found to be overweight, as were 35 per cent of the youngsters between 11 and 19, while one in ten school age children experienced anaemia.
Former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, concludes that trade policies had favoured a greater reliance on heavily processed and refined foods with a long shelf life rather than on the consumption of fresh and more perishable foods, particularly fruit and vegetables. He added that the overweight and obesity emergency that Mexico faces could have been avoided.
In 2015, the non-profit organisation GRAIN reported that the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) led to the direct investment in food processing and a change in Mexico’s retail structure (towards supermarkets and convenience stores) as well as the emergence of global agribusiness and transnational food companies in the country.
NAFTA eliminated rules preventing foreign investors from owning more than 49 per cent of a company. It also prohibited minimum amounts of domestic content in production and increased rights for foreign investors to retain profits and returns from initial investments. By 1999, US companies had invested 5.3 billion dollars in Mexico’s food processing industry, a 25-fold increase in just 12 years.
US food corporations began to colonise the dominant food distribution networks of small-scale vendors, known as tiendas (corner shops). This helped spread nutritionally poor food as they allowed these corporations to sell and promote their foods to poorer populations in small towns and communities. By 2012, retail chains had displaced tiendas as Mexico’s main source of food sales.
In Mexico, the loss of food sovereignty induced catastrophic changes to the nation’s diet and many small-scale farmers lost their livelihoods, which was accelerated by the dumping of surplus commodities (produced at below the cost of production due to subsidies) from the US. NAFTA rapidly drove millions of Mexican farmers, ranchers and small businesspeople into bankruptcy, leading to the flight of millions of immigrant workers.
Warning for India
What happened in Mexico should serve as a warning as Indian farmers continue their protest against three recent farm bills that are designed to fully corporatize the agrifood sector through contract farming, the massive roll-back of public sector support systems, a reliance on imports (boosted by a future US trade deal) and the acceleration of large-scale (online) retail.
If you want to know the eventual fate of India’s local markets and small retailers, look no further than what US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in 2019. He stated that Amazon had “destroyed the retail industry across the United States.”
And if you want to know the eventual fate of India’s farmers, look no further than the 1990s when the IMF and World Bank advised India to shift hundreds of millions out of agriculture in return for up to more than $120 billion in loans at the time.
India was directed to dismantle its state-owned seed supply system, reduce subsidies, run down public agriculture institutions and offer incentives for the growing of cash crops for export to earn foreign exchange. Part of the strategy would also involve changing land laws so that land could be sold and amalgamated for industrial-scale farming.
The plan was for foreign corporations to capture the sector, with the aforementioned policies having effectively weakened or displaced independent cultivators.
To date, this process has been slow but the recent legislation could finally deliver a knock-out blow to tens of millions of farmers and give what the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Facebook, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midlands, Louis Dreyfus, Bunge and the global agritech, seed and agrochemical corporations have wanted all along. It will also serve the retail/agribusiness/logistics interests of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and its sixth richest, Gautam Adani.
During their ongoing protests, farmers have been teargassed, smeared and beaten. Journalist Satya Sagar notes that government advisors fear that seeming to appear weak with the agitating farmers would not sit well with foreign agrifood investors and could stop the flow of big money into the sector – and the economy as a whole.
And it is indeed ‘big’ money. Facebook invested 5.5 billion dollars last year in Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms (e-commerce retail). Google has also invested 4.5 billion dollars. Currently, Amazon and Flipkart (Walmart has an 81% stake) together control over 60% of the country’s overall e-commerce market. These and other international investors have a great deal to lose if the recent farm legislation is repealed. So does the Indian government.
Since the 1990s, when India opened up to neoliberal economics, the country has become increasingly dependent on inflows of foreign capital. Policies are being governed by the drive to attract and retain foreign investment and maintain ‘market confidence’ by ceding to the demands of international capital. ‘Foreign direct investment’ has thus become the holy grail of the Modi-led administration.
Little wonder the government needs to be seen as acting ‘tough’ on protesting farmers because now, more than ever, attracting and retaining foreign reserves will be required to purchase food on the international market once India surrenders responsibility for its food policy to private players by eliminating its buffer stocks.
The plan to radically restructure agrifood in the country is being sold to the public under the guise of ‘modernising’ the sector. And this is to be carried out by self-proclaimed ‘wealth creators’ like Zuckerberg, Bezos and Ambani who are highly experienced at creating wealth – for themselves.
According to the recent Oxfam report ‘The Inequality Virus’, Mukesh Ambani doubled his wealth between March and October 2020. The coronavirus-related lockdown in India resulted in the country’s billionaires increasing their wealth by around 35 per cent, while 170,000 people lost their jobs every hour in April 2020 alone.
Prior to the lockdown, Oxfam reported that 73 per cent of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1 per cent, while 670 million Indians, the poorest half of the population, saw only a 1 per cent increase in their wealth.
Moreover, the fortunes of India’s billionaires increased by almost 10 times over a decade and their total wealth was higher than the entire Union budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19.
It is clear who these ‘wealth creators’ create wealth for. On the People’s Review site, Tanmoy Ibrahim writes a piece on India’s billionaire class, with a strong focus on Ambani and Adani. By outlining the nature of crony capitalism in India, it is clear that Modi’s ‘wealth creators’ are given carte blanche to plunder the public purse, people and the environment, while real wealth creators – not least the farmers – are fighting for existence.
The current struggle should not be regarded as a battle between the government and farmers. If what happened in Mexico is anything to go by, the outcome will adversely affect the entire nation in terms of the further deterioration of public health and the loss of livelihoods.
Consider that rates of obesity in India have already tripled in the last two decades and the nation is fast becoming the diabetes and heart disease capital of the world. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), between 2005 and 2015 the number of obese people doubled, even though one in five children in the 5-9 year age group were found to be stunted.
This will be just part of the cost of handing over the sector to billionaire (comprador) capitalists Mukesh Ambani and Gautum Adani and Jeff Bezos (world’s richest person), Mark Zuckerberg (world’s fourth richest person), the Cargill business family (14 billionaires) and the Walmart business family (richest in the US).
These individuals are poised to siphon off the wealth of India’s agrifood sector while denying the livelihoods of many millions of small-scale farmers and local mom and pop retailers while undermining the health of the nation.
Colin Todhunter is an independent journalist who writes on development, environmental issues, politics, food and agriculture. In August 2018 he was named as one of 400 Living Peace and Justice Leaders and Models by Transcend Media Services, in recognition of his journalism. Join him on Twitter.
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Greta’s intervention seems to have muddied the waters:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/15/india-activist-arrested-over-protest-toolkit-shared-by-greta-thunberg
Is the Indian PM being double-crossed by his pals from the West for some reason?
Most of these protesters are Sikhs first, farmers maybe. Sporting a turban and long beard is only common along the border with Pakistan. These two items are a must for Khalistan, the Pakistani ISI promoted new “independent” state. Canadian’s Trudeau also is on that bandwagon due to a local vote block. Little to do with farming, much with anti India.
https://twitter.com/DelhiPolice/status/1360913829450801161
Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannu of SFJ instigated the farmers to remove the tricolour from Red Fort on Republic Day and linked the farmers’ protest with 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The Indian famers have finally caught this cunning legislation in time to oppose it. My father was a farmer in the Punjab, India when the plans of the “Green Revolution” were formulated by asking for more Fertiliser ! Fertiliser ! Fertiliser ! in 1958 the then American Nobel prize winner for agriculture. My father along with thousands of other Punjabi famers were compelled to emigrate to the UK, to earn a decent living. Corporate capitalism is destructive, and will marginalise the farmers. I am so glad Indian farmers are making a protest, and have dug in for a long term. The BJP is a right wing extremist party trying to appease the mega rich. I call upon farmers of the world to unite & fight to save one of the oldest & noblest professions of the world.
Anti Modi indefinite road blocks disguised as farmer protests: Soros tactics.
I’m very much not a fan of modi
But the thing is, there are serious issues in america. They’ve sold ALL your foods. If you think you’re going to be able to rely on corporates for that you are kinda screwed.
I mean, if china, india, other countries have bought so much american food…then america willl basically reimport a lot of that (most probably processed first). That’s of course great for causing shortages and inflation, as well as lowering quality controls. So who’s going to benefit there? Absolutely noone (not even the morons that think they do benefit because of corporate profit), because of the resulting environmental degradation.
They just don’t understand that by breaking down the environment the environment invariably breaks them down.
Vilsack is one of the worst guys imaginable for USDA, so you’re fucked there, too. Don’t expect those foods to get any less toxic.
Off- topic, or vaguely related given the involvement of the Cryptocracy.
The ‘Chinese disease’ – to Quote a certain American president( surprise, surprise) seems to be suffering from a new kind of ‘ exposure’ .
The veil protecting it is becoming thinner. The obvious, which many of us realised 12 months ago, needed a little more flesh on it’s bones. By that, I mean the giant dots, that were only few and easy to connect, were continuously evading the understanding of a worryingly large section of the global populace.
The ‘obvious’ being that the Crypto poodles, Gates and Fauci , and their cynical 2017 ‘prediction-based-on-nothing-scientific’ that a pandemic would arrive before 2020 and the same year’s 2017 coincidence of Fauci seeking to have gain-of-function-research not only re-established in the Virology community, but to actually tell- sorry, i mean request- that the government throw good money at it. Nobody knows for sure how he convinced them to write the cheques. But when Fauci speaks for his ‘people’ governments jump. This is why Gates fell for him.
Gates is more a rabid eugenicist than Scientists. Which is fitting really, as Eugenics was never a Science and Bill has never been a scientist. But you can see how these twins of evil are complimentary halves of a whole. They have different backgrounds but equal power and the same goals. Which goes some way to explaining how come we have a biologically engineered ‘thing’ we have to acknowledge as a ‘virus’ and a biologically and AI hybrid they are calling a vaccine that doesn’t kill it. What’s actually in the vaccines is anyone’s guess. But, given that it was spawned by two lunatics that want most of the world dead or paralysed, I think it’s safe to say it isn’t paracetamol ( where’s the profits in that for them and their politician shareholders anyway?).
Here’s what ( hopefully) the MSM will surely have to address sooner or later.
In an interview with news reporters, Fauci once contended that “nature is the worst bioterrorist,” effectively shirking all responsibility for his involvement in weaponizing it against humanity.
Interestingly, it has been almost exactly 20 years since Fauci made those statements, and here we are with President Donald Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” program, which fast-tracked the release of Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines at speeds never before seen.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-02-12-mag-admits-fauci-hot-wired-coronavirus.html
Deliberately or not, western governments amay be marking their mRNA’d population for target by a secondary bioweapon.
I haven’t researched this yet but the article raises some questions:
“Due to the way these mRNA shots work — they are not actually a vaccine at all in that they do not “mimic” natural infection but rather cause your cells to produce the spike protein that the virus has and that elicits an immune response — that the antibodies produced by being those jabs would be distinct and distinguishable from natural infection.
This has now, for the first time in human history, been changed by the idiotic actions of our governments and pharmaceutical companies in that we are now tagging people for death by the literal millions and they will die if an adversary is able to develop a virus that targets those specific antibodies.
I give the odds of an adversary (remember, we’re talking nations here with nearly unlimited resources and plenty of smart people) figuring out how to selectively target Covid-19 vaccination antibodies at 50% or better within the next five years.
If they succeed every single person who took one of the vaccines tha produces a distinguishable antibody titer dies.”
China seems to have gone with a traditional vaccine and effectively has banned the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer/Moderna.)
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=241577
I think that first referenced paragraph speaks volumes. If they publicly talk about anything whatsoever concerning this Covid movie being anything other than ‘natural’ then the MSM who are also a public voice should at least try and pass themselves off as genuinely informative and ask questions down that road.
A naturally occurring virus or disease- even one that’s a hybrid of two others created on the usual US assembly line- requires a vaccine that contains it’s antibodies. And, if they aren’t present, that’s what any forensic detective would call ”no forensic proof at all of it ever being at the scene of crime”. By extension the question would then have to be a choice of : So, is the virus even real and if it isn’t a natural virus what is it ?
They have never said any of the Gates cocktails will kill the virus or cure the patient or prevent future contamination. But insists we all need it. That’s another key question no MSM journalist or reporter will tackle. It’s also why Gates has bought them in anticipation of questions neither he or his cohorts can answer from an actual scientific standpoint.
Gates tentacles have slowly stretched across the globe and are now beginning to tighten around it.
He has vast influence over Bayer / Monsanto and the spread of fake seeds, fake food and fake, genetically engineered crap . Our bodies aren’t evolved along the lines to accommodate that or naturally adapt to it at short notice. His influence over that factory as well as the WHO combine the two most important areas of world affairs now and the next 2 years. That is, a fake pandemic created by a fake virus and a fake climate change scare requiring production of fake GMOs.
He has reasoned this all out in the Wall Street Journal for 10 years. Last time I looked, the WSJ wasn’t a well respected scientific journal. And Wall Street is associated with nothing that even resembles ‘philanthropy’.
Like he put the WHO in his pocket, followed by all on and offline MSM platforms, he bought Cornell Alliance For Science. That’s a PR campaign for the ‘Agrichemical Industry’.
He was behind (2016) the staged protests against Vandana Shiva , a food sovereignty advocate and activist. She was, and is, the biggest thorn in Mr Benevolent’s side.
The Cornell affiliates hit the streets at Willamette to counter what they claimed was “misinformation” and “doublespeak” from Dr. Shiva.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Protesters demonstrating and exposing the greed and the assault on the economies of other countries using faked scientific reasoning to achieve his( and his handlers) ends and being called ‘conspiracy theorists’ and ‘nutcases’. Yet it’s him having to pay billions to write dishonest scripts for the media to propagate and buy so-called ‘fact-checkers to invent more lies to silence.
A January 2016 report by the UK advocacy group Global Justice Now argues that Gates Foundation spending :
Or, to translate that into plain English, Gates pays the voices and they speak his lies.
There is only one major adversary: Globocap as CJ Hopkins called it.
mRNA vaccines to create Spanish Flu 2.0
Mass spectometry should tell us at least some of the elements and basic compounds in the jab.
Then let’s hope someone can get hold of one and deliver the information
Jura Calling: “Off- topic, or vaguely related…”
On the contrary, your news is spot on topic: Global conspiracy of the filthy-rich “elite” to become the ultra-filthy-rich “even more elite” by ruining peoples health, first with Genetically Modified Food and now with a Bio-Weaponized Virus.
Dr. Fauci Frankenstein ran a Virus House at the Bio-Weapons Lab, Fort Detrick, Virginia. The same Fort Detrick released the Anthrax which was blamed on Saddam Hussein. Fort Detrick was closed down by public pressure, for carelessness in handling dangerous pathogens, after local people began to develope Respiratory Symptoms. Fort D’s . Frankenstein Virus House was moved to Wuhan, with the same Dr.F still in charge.
This news supports the claim by French molecular biologist Luc Montagnier; as soon as the Chinese released their partial sequence Luc said, “That virus has seen the inside of a test tube”.
The BEST thing about that image… NOT A SINGLE ONE of those modern slaves is wearing a MUZZLE. That alone is already a wonderful sight.
.
Human stupidity
.
Or deliberate mind fuckery?
It has all been mind fuckery and will continue to be I think
It can only be.
if. you pay attention.
“Do Not Enter if One Has Shit For Brains. Well that keeps Boris out.”
As covid symptoms are similar to flu, how do you know what you have until tested? With a useless PCR!
You would have thought that given the historical record that we ‘d now be a lot smarter about this but obviously when there’s money to be made there’s endless funds for rationalizations to explain why “This time, it will be different”. There should always be room for growth and change but a lop sided strategy that will cause population displacement in a society that can’t care for its existing population properly should obviously be a non-starter. The agricultural techniques that will inevitably follow are also known to have serious negative side effects on the land and ecosystem.
Money is both persuasive and persistent, unfortuantely.
I once said I’m not bringing new life into a dying world
I’m sorry to say, but this world has a very bizarre concept of economy that doesn’t apply to my domain. You have these convoluted bullshit euphemisms, like you call slavery philanthropy…you call exploitation economy. Nah it’s okay. We’ll skip those “systems”.
Cicatrix
Whale sounds
Rihanna’s $2.5 million bribe from Canadian and US based Sikh Separatists to promote CNN anti India agit prop, followed by Greta and now Offguardian???
This entire Farmer protest is backed by the same globalists powers behind Covid Fascism the war on terror and global depopulation.
Farmer= little guy so we all naturally sympathize and that is the genius of the elite…abusing legit issues as a means towards local socio political destabilization and leadership sterilization which is then replaced by elite controlled regional puppets… Boris Biden Rahul Gandhi et al and most likely Trump as well in a kind of controlled opposition Count Dookoo role.
It behooves all truly interested in the facts in this regard to read the views of the actual people behind the new laws and regulations that triggered these protests. I’ve added several links in my previous message. Also here are several related links
https://www.organiser.org//Search.html?SearchText=Farmers
Canada firm, MP, PR person suspected for farmers protest toolkit tweeted by Greta Thunberg
https://theprint.in/diplomacy/canada-firm-mp-pr-person-suspected-for-farmers-protest-toolkit-tweeted-by-greta-thunberg/599098/
Legal request issued to US against ‘Sikhs for Justice’: MEA
https://m.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/legal-request-issued-to-us-against-sikhs-for-justice-mea-207956
The fact Greta Thunberg is on this bandwagon makes me suspicious when she’s turned a blind eye to similar issues around the world
Is there an anti Modi sentiment in the world government ? I wonder why. He and his electorate are massively pro Israel. India now purchases half of Israel’s arms production. The two countries had no diplomatic ties until Rajiv Gandhi was liquidated. The gutsy Jain commission that investigated the murder pointed it’s finger at the M agency.
The Modi government has beatified a chap called Savarkar who murdered Mahatma Gandhi. The Mahatma consistently opposed the creation of the new entity in the Middle East.
To be accurate Savarkar didnt kill Gandhi. Was Godse who was allegedly inspired by Savarkars ideology. Savarkar was charged but acquitted.
Also a guy named Pramod Mahajan was meant to be the Indian Nationalist PM yet he was murdered paving the way for Modi with all his Gujarat 2002 massacre baggage to become PM.
And Gandhi totally screwed up the Hindu-Muslim unity exemplified by Netaji S C Bose.
When Bose was elected Congress President Gandhi sabotaged his efforts. Gandhi then called for the Quit India movement at a time when it was absolutely impossible to achieve. Gandhis overtly religious style brought great anxiety to Jinnah and the overall Muslim community leading to their demand for Pakistan. Jinnah stated this himself.
Obviously it is unfair to blame Gandhi for the millions massacred during partition yet many saw a direct link between Gandhi’s failed policies and the eventual partition and associated violence and death. Ironically the 20th century’s greatest advocate for peace stubbornly advocated policies that led to some of the most violent incidents in India’s history.
Also re Israel; the Sauds secretly agreed to the creation of Israel in exchange for the creation of Pakistan. Gandhi was not in favor of India’s partition as well. So there’s a direct link there as well.
The partition of the subcontinent was inevitable since the world government rules by dividing. The USSR was the first to vote for the creation of the new Middle Eastern entity. The Mahatma was liquidated in time for the new Middle Eastern nation’s “independence”.
This is from “Mapping the Violent Anarchy behind peaceful Farmers Protest”, from “The organizer”:
(title of photo)
The promise of peaceful tractor rally was broken by the
protesters and led to violence at the ramparts of Red Fort on 72nd Republic Day
Sure sounds like the media are making the protest have a similar theme as the Capitol Protest has been: Hyperbole and deliberate clouding of protesters intent.
https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2021/2/13/Mapping-the-Violent-Anarchy-behind-peaceful-Farmers-Protest.html
Article 1 has NO evidence;
https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2021/2/13/Mapping-the-Violent-Anarchy-behind-peaceful-Farmers-Protest.html
This article is about the Indian government complaining about the organization of the Farmer protests.
What is your point? It comes across as “how dare the farmers organize”!
In 1987/88 in India there was a billboard advert that I noticed advertising a cola drink called Thumbs Up. Their advertising blurb proudly proclaimed ‘Absolutely no fruit juice or fruit pulp in this drink….100% artificial’ or something very similar. Capitalist mind control never sleeps.
Thumbs Up was a totally chemical concoction it’s true, but at least it was Indian, it is now owned by Coca Cola (another chemical concoction) and is nowhere near as good a chemical concoction as it was, Thumbs Down in my opinion.
Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath– mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up. There was a soft drink bottle on the windowsill. Its label boasted that it contained no nourishment whatsoever.
— Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favourite fiction/non-fiction books and goes into my desert island top 10. Just saying.
“From Land To Mouth,” by Brewster Kneen (a book I had that I lost due to poverty) told the story of the illusion of variety and the corresponding loss of nutrition. He used the concept of distancing. When the food goes from land to mouth (no middle men, no processing and modification in order to make many products out of one and in order to make that tomato look fresh after sitting for a week and travelling a thousand miles), all is well. Increase the ‘distance’ and things go sideways.
The article took me back to my earliest days of armchair activism, fighting free trade deals. That’s what gave my blog the wonky name it has: A Yappy Trade Barrier. To lawyers hammering out free trade deals (‘Free’ and ‘trade’ is good don’t you know?), anything that the people want is said to be a ‘trade barrier’ and can’t be allowed.
I agree with all that Colin laid out here, but what can the people do against a police State? All of our governments (even righteous looking Mexico and Venezuela) are police States The global Corporatocracy can allow nothing else and therefore police States are all that we have, as far as I know. Reportedly, Belarus was misbehaving recently. But so did Maduro and Amlo and they aren’t solid. Maduro, in an incredible act of betrayal to Venezuelans, is bringing in social credit to Venezuela. You run from the lion and run into the bear – in this ruined world.
How depressing about Venezuela
For sure. After all they’ve been through. It just goes to show that the people, everywhere, set themselves up for failure, and the enslavement plans of predators, when they went along with the idea of electing presidents and prime ministers, etc, namely single imperfect, corruptible human beings who, with a word or the stroke of a pen, can consign an entire people to hell.
They confiscated/nationalised all the major foreign ‘capitalist’ businesses and attempted to run them. Result: no production.
Then they inflated the currency and imposed ridiculous low selling prices for local businesses. Result: no goods for sale.
The usual outcome, the black market, flourishes. The ‘strong’ bolivar from a couple of years ago is about 2 million to the dollar, the bolivar before that revaluation would now be worth 200 billion to the dollar, and the bolivar of 2007 would be 200 trillion to the dollar.
Another plan is needed.
Venezuela has been a huge disappointment. AMLO has been far better on Covid than Maduro, even calling out the authoritarianism of governments imposing lockdowns and emphasizing that vaccination is voluntary. He is still pro-‘vaccine’, though. You can’t have ‘faith’ in any political leader.
The hoaxsters and those joining them have zero shame and zero principles.
Rihanna was paid $2.5 million by the PR firm Skyrocket to tweet in support of the farmers protest in India.
https://greatgameindia.com/rihanna-paid-skyrocket-tweet/
Jagmeet Singh is a dog. As head of the NDP (last I looked), he is part of a neoliberal / fascist political party that had its roots in genuine activism and pro human rights champions. That was the CCF. Anyone who is paid to advocate for a position should be ignored and/or called out. Soft (like feces) power strikes again! But I am far from distrusting the Indian Farmers’ movement. Maybe this is meant to discredit it.
I would agree, and add. How many movements these days are coopted and diffused.
The flood plains of India are very rich farmland.
MSM, Marxists, Globalists backed Separatists Khalistanis Greta all on the same page on this Farmer crisis. Now OG is parroting the same propoganda?
Weaponizing genuine concerns into National destabilizing movements is par for the course. Truth is Modi is a dedicated Indian Nationalist and Traditionalist. India has alot of traumatic issues. Indias crrent leadership is genuinely attempting to address all issues in a productive and just manner.
While this article claims the new laws are in support of a multinational hegemonic assault against Indian Farmers, the facts prove otherwise.
For Anyone interested in the actual facts regarding the Farmer crisis read these articles from the Indian Nationalist org of which Modi is a lifelong member.
Mapping the Violent Anarchy behind peaceful Farmers Protest
https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2021/2/13/Mapping-the-Violent-Anarchy-behind-peaceful-Farmers-Protest.html
Farmers’ Agitation: Who Does It Really and Why?
https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2021/1/18/Farmers-Agitation-Who-Does-It-Really-and-Why-.html
#IndiaAgainstPropaganda, Ministry of External Affairs reacts sharply to the anti-India global Mafia
https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2021/2/3/-IndiaAgainstPropaganda-Ministry-of-External-Affairs-reacts-sharply-to-the-anti-India-global-Mafia.html
I hope it’s just the author of this article is sincere yet uninformed. Tragedy if Offguardian has been compromised into being part of the ongoing globalist India balkanization agenda.
SOME FACTS
“Fact remains that the policy of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and excessive subsidies to farmers of Punjab and Haryana come at the expense of small and marginal farmers across the country. Moreover, the policy was skewed to benefit large farmers who produced marketable surplus. Thus the previous policy was known to perpetuate and widen inequality. Moreover, the excessive use of fertilisers and electricity subsidies made agriculture unsustainable in Punjab. The attempt to shift people away from agriculture has been unsuccessful. Consequently, people in Punjab are no longer witnessing an improvement in productivity levels and they are finding less non-farm employment opportunities.”
SOURCE Sidelining Real Issues confronting Bharat’s Farmers
https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2021/2/2/Sidelining-Real-Issues-confronting-Bharat-s-Farmers.html
Here comes the first of the troll tsunami rallying to the fascist Modi govt. Quoting pro-Modi websites gives this particular troll’s game away. Noticing Colin Todhunter’s reporting on the Indian agribusiness industry for Off-Guardian only now (and not years before) is another giveaway.
Any genuine attempt to understand a thing requires a full spectrum approach. Sharing the views of those at the root of an issue, in this case Indian lawmakers and their political and ideological leadership, allows for access to the actual regulations implemented and the reasoning behind such legislation.
This article makes alot of claims in this exact context thus my comment was shared in the spirit of Offguardians motto “Because facts really should be sacred”.
Are they the facts? That is for each of us to investigate and decide for ourselves
Facts? You offer links containing one-sided politically inspired rhetoric that has been debunked (with data) by various prominent commentators and organisations (just one example – https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/rich-farmers-global-plots-local-stupidity/).
But that does not really concern me. My focus (as was yours, given that you commented here) is the article itself. It is the culmination of numerous pieces that have appeared by the author on this site and other media outlets. And those articles, including the one above, derive their ‘claims’ from respected sources that quote data and employ in-depth analysis. Every ‘claim’ can be substantiated. Moreover, there are embedded links for a reason.
The effects of NAFTA on Mexico – as outlined in the article – are outlined more indepth here https://www.grain.org/article/entries/5170-free-trade-and-mexico-s-junk-food-epidemic
I also suggest accessing the Research Unit for Political Economy site at https://rupeindia.wordpress.com/ and read the three-part article
”The kisans are right – their land is at stake’
as well as its article
‘Modi’s farm produce act was authored 30 years ago – in Washington’
https://rupeindia.wordpress.com/2021/01/05/modis-farm-produce-act-was-authored-thirty-years-ago-in-washington-d-c/
and its other three-part article
‘Continuing subordination to global finance’ https://rupeindia.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/the-choice-posed-once-more-by-the-covid-19-crisis-summary/
Once a ‘full spectrum approach’ occurs, it becomes crystal clear the reason for the legislation. And yes, let people have access to the genuine ‘facts’ and then let them decide.
Well, I know very little about this subject, but am pleased to see there is some debate on this one. Particularly comments on the complexities and possible agendas behind the scenes. I look at the world today and the tentacles of external vested interests and interference seem everywhere. Hence a great deal of research at several levels required to reach a conclusion on many topics imo.
One final thing to say, I believe Off G do publish a range of different viewpoints, including perhaps specialised/localised as this author and bigger picture angle stuff. But that generates debate, which is good.
Has OffG ever supported the Palestinian cause ?
Good question. But what more can be said? Will that situation ever be rectified? I don’t see how. Look what and who they’re up against. It’s a horrible situation.
“But what more can be said?”
Keep talking about it!
Here in Canada, I like to post provocative statements on the entrance to my business. I have presently,
‘BDS U$A and I$RAEL;
UK, FRANCE, CANADA,
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
(if given the chance)’
Also this:
“We are ALL Palestinians”
So farmers are being squeezed and manipulated by both sides.
From a broader perspective, the cabal who run the world want to move all people (Goals of Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030) off their land into mega cities. But since automation, robotics, shrinking populations and debt expansion is creating an unsustainable economic situation and increasing inequality, there will never be any new jobs generated.
Due to rampant unemployment and poverty globally already, the cabal have no intention of feeding or maintaining the excess numbers of “useless eaters”. Hence the
vaccinessynthetic mRNA injectable pathogens and 5g are being deployed simultaneously as an extermination, surveillance, automation and control mechanism within a global tyranny and central governance.Whatever Modi’s actions or motivations, they’re all being controlled by the central bank cartel and the UN.
The aging population also adds to the unsustainable economic situation, though not in India.
Are you even getting 1 dollar per hour ?
I expected such suspicions from my post but full disclosure I spent 15 years working with Indigenous tribal groups in India.Never met Modi but did meet alot of traditionalist activists The Indian Nationalist group Modi is a member of was always at the forefront of reviving indigenous culture agricultural techniques and enhancing basic self sufficient methodologies. Thru their Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram https://vanvasi.org/ millions of tribal people have been educated empowered and uplifted socially and politically.
I left in 2012 before Modi was elected so it’s possible power corrupted or enforced compromise etc but based upon my personal 15;years experience the concept of Modis parent org allowing the detriment of India’s farmers is just untenable and illogical.
Also for those bandying around terms like fascism in relation to India’s traditionalists; it is historically innacurate and blatantly wrong. Using this same standard every American Indian leader like Tecumseh Sitting Bull Geronimo Red Cloud Crazy Horse Tupac Amaru King Phillip et Al can all be labeled as fascist.
Such labeling of India’s native revivalists as fascist is merely a tactic in the war against Indigenous self reliance. In the view of the globalists being in the majority is enough for Hindus to warrant such tar and feathering. Sooner they are dehumanized the easier they can be genocided and their resources pillaged.
In 1857 the two communities joined hands in what William Dalrymple called the largest anti Imperialist upheaval in the 19th century, Since then there has been a lot of effort put into setting them at each other’s throats. This resulted in the bloody dismemberment of the subcontinent in 1947 and the stoking of hatred into the present day.
@Brannon: “Mapping the Violent Anarchy behind the Indian Farmers Protest”
Reminds me of Tenniel famous cartoon of an ape-like Irish peasant confronted by noble Brittannia whose “massy sword” (and even more massive chin) stands firm to face down the Violent Anarchy behind the Irish Farmers Protest”.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-two-forces-irish-land-league-outlawed-britannia-protects-hibernia-57345098.html
It’s not the “governments”. It’s corporate syndication. Repeat these two lines until you understand how corporate syndication works and what it means in real terms…
But governments can outlaw these corporate syndicates from taking over industries within their countries. Only if they understand the threat or if they have not been bribed.
Governments ARE corporations.
First true statement I’ve seen on this entire thread.
Governments aren’t bribed, they’re “captured”. Reading the comments on Off-G I think a lot of people are not quite up to speed about how government and power works — they think that “government can just make a law” and stuff happens. The process is a whole lot more complex than that, especially in societies that are nominally deomcratic.
Yeah.
You just don’t get it. Governments, as you understand them, don’t exist.
Do you truly think the author doesn’t understand corporate syndication given the subject matter he’s focused on, and given the context of the work he regularly produces?
Hello Mr Cayeen: It’s not up to the author of the article to understand the hazards of corporate syndication. >
What Is a Syndicate?
“A syndicate is a temporary alliance of businesses that joins together to manage a large transaction, which would be difficult, or impossible, to effect individually. Syndication makes it easy for companies to pool their resources and share risks, as when a group of investment banks works together to bring a new issue of securities to the market. There are different types of syndicates, such as underwriting syndicates, banking syndicates, and insurance syndicates.”
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/syndicate.asp#:~:text=A%20syndicate%20is%20a%20temporary%20alliance%20of%20businesses,a%20new%20issue%20of%20securities%20to%20the%20market.
Understanding the methods by which corporations have captured civil society and sovereign governance, are the issues at hand. The general public will either become educated or remain enslaved…
Persons such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, Bill Gates, and many others who have unlimited financial power, are allowed to buy off State courts and control legislation. The mechanisms by which these individuals control society need to be entirely eliminated.
Nobody who is involved in stripping Indian farmers of their rights and lands and their capacity to farm for themselves is under an illusions. They know what the end result will be because it has been done in other countries.
In Blighty the farmers are slaves to the big food stores who dictate the price at which farmers can sell their produce. They are also lied to and told to dip their animals in poison which over time also kills off the farmer. They are also wide open for gov’t made scamdemics which decimate their flocks and herds. Effectively putting them in debt or out of business altogether.
There will come a time when ordinary people get sick of being pushed around and squeezed like lemons for all they are worth, and into a life of poverty and gov’t dependence. There will also be a time when people will begin to realise that they have to deal directly with those parasites and shysters who want to enslave them and rob them of all they have. When one is attacked, one needs to go on the offensive and target the source. Shysters and parasites may view things differently when their own lives and wealth is directly affected.
Modi is taking the knee for the NWO and billions of soon to be worthless currency, throwing his population under the bus to facilitate the process. I’m surprised that a nation which puts vehicles into space cannot afford to run their own agriculture and needs the ‘help’ of uber rich shysters from home, but mainly abroad, to run it into the ground for them.
Actually, in the UK, there is an increasing sector of food producers who are ‘disintermediating’ the supermarkets and who sell direct to the public, be that through weekly vegetable deliveries, sale through farmers markets and direct delivery of fish and meat products.
Obviously, this is still dwarfed by the supermarket sector, but it is growing rapidly and the direction of travel is clear.
Farmers and consumers will both do better if they trade directly with each other.
The more people learn that, the more rapid the transition to reward growers will be.
Agreed. However, govt scams such as covid will eventually close them down too. There is a world wide attack on independent food producers. They are culling everything in the name of H1N1, swine flu, etc.
If the coming global cooling doesn’t close down farms, a gov’t who are so far up the NWO/UN arsehole will.
Cow farming has almost completely destroyed nature in the UK. No wilderness=no life.
Cow farming or industrial cow farming under modern finance?
Rockets in space, 300 million Indians have no decent place to shit…
When a vast no. of citizens is destitute or even starving, having space and nuclear tech. is insanity.
even the poorest man in india is a king
and yet the lowly constable police agent beats them so
the man who would be king
if only he knew.
corporation agent modi
does not have sleep less nights
safe in his castle keep
just zio knights templar from the city of london private kingdom
has plenty of cia and mossadicks help paid by wall street and the district of columbia
or is it colombia whatever
his role is culling one way or the other and the cashing in of bonds and insurance placed on all babies heads from birth.
even the poorest village all humans are corporate persons
sometimes worth more alive sometimes dead
either way money is made