As the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally takes place in Delhi today, a group of notable citizens and intellectuals have issued a statement urging people to join the massive rally of agricultural labourers and workers as they unite. The Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) have all called for the demonstration. They claim that the current government’s policies are purely intended to favour the corporate sector while ignoring the interests of the working class, drawing attention to the significant fall in the lives and livelihoods of working people in both urban and rural areas.The full statement reads as follows:We the undersigned extend our full support to the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally in Delhi on 5 April 2023 and appeal to the people from all walks of life to spread its message and participate in it. The condition of the working people has deteriorated to an unprecedented level due to the notorious economic onslaught unleashed by the current government. Declining wages, rising prices of essential commodities, raging unemployment, falling returns for farm produce, abysmal agricultural wages, ever deepening agrarian distress resulting in precarious migration of millions, and floundering welfare schemes systematically curtailed by the government, are pushing marginal families into severe poverty. The distress caused by the economic crisis is leading to suicides by thousands of wage workers, farmers and other sections of the toiling masses. Meanwhile, basic entitlements like education and healthcare are being increasingly privatised, pushing them beyond the reach of common people.What is equally shocking is the government’s refusal to address this crisis engulfing almost all sections of the people. In fact the government is blindly pushing ahead with its discredited policy of providing gifts to the corporates by cutting corporate taxes, selling off public sector assets at throwaway prices, dismantling protective labour laws, writing off huge corporate loans, and inviting predatory foreign capital into the country’s key and strategic industries hitherto reserved for the public sector. Corruption has seeped into every sphere of social life.In order to divert attention from these policies, the ruling BJP, and its mentor the RSS and its affiliates, have launched toxic hate campaigns targeting minorities and threatening our basic social fabric. The government has provided shameful protection to these barbaric forces while at the same time selectively exercising the authority of its agencies to arrest, harass, and even bulldoze the properties of those opposing its policies. It has also tried to hide behind pseudo-nationalist rhetoric and militarism even as it goes about dismantling the fundamental pillars of our Constitution – democracy, federalism and secularism.Various sections of the people, especially the working class and the peasantry have been building resistance against this disastrous corporate-communal agenda of the ruling dispensation. On several occasions they have successfully pushed back neoliberal anti people policies, as evident from the historic Kisan struggle or the recent victory of Maharashtra electricity workers.We firmly believe that this historic march to Delhi by the workers, peasants and agricultural workers, raising the basic issues and demands of all sections of the people, on 5 April 2023 will further advance the people’s resistance and give notice to this government that its anti-people policies will no longer be tolerated.We appeal to the people of the country to stand with the basic producing classes and join them in this struggle.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Full Statement and Signatories: <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/wp-contenthttps://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/2023/04/Statement-on-April-05-Kisan-March.pdf">Statement on April 05 Kisan March</a><hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM">YouTube</a> &amp; <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq">WhatsApp</a>

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As the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally takes place in Delhi today, a group of notable citizens and intellectuals have issued a statement urging people to join the massive rally of agricultural labourers and workers as they unite. The Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) have all called for the demonstration. They claim that the current government’s policies are purely intended to favour the corporate sector while ignoring the interests of the working class, drawing attention to the significant fall in the lives and livelihoods of working people in both urban and rural areas.

In support of the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Discussions on the realpolitik motives and impact of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s “One Nation, One Election” proposal have come up in diverse platforms, including political spaces and the media over the past few days. These discussions have broadly revolved around two points. First, it has been widely accepted that the government’s primary aim in putting forth this was to upset the developing unity among the opposition parties across the country as part of the <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/what-does-opposition-parties-meet-in-bengaluru-mean-for-national-politics/">INDIA</a> alliance. The second point is that the BJP does find merit in advancing the elections from May 2024 to an earlier period – a thinking based on the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) assessment that popular trust and confidence on the Prime Minister and his government have been steadily decreasing over the past few months. The BJP’s comprehensive loss in the May 2023 Assembly elections in <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/tag/karnataka-janathayonthike/">Karnataka</a> as well as the negative ground reports about the party’s prospects in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where Assembly elections are due by the end of the year, mainly contributed to this assessment.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The fact that Home Minister Amit Shah entrusted former President Ram Nath Kovind with the task of starting consultations on the “One Nation One Election” idea in early June, immediately after the Karnataka loss adds credence to the assessment. After his presidential tenure, Kovind was learnt to be working with a hectic schedule between early June and the last week of August. It was in the last week of August that the “One Nation One Election” idea was formally unravelled by the Union government. During this period, Kovind met about ten Governors, apart from senior leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-led Sangh Parivar and the BJP. He also met Mohan Rao Bhagwat, the Sarsangachalak of the RSS, during this period.<figure class="image"><img alt="image_2023-09-07_154253674 (1).png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_09_07_154253674_1_4d4422e160.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_09_07_154253674_1_4d4422e160.png 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_2023_09_07_154253674_1_4d4422e160.png 500w" sizes="100vw" width="500"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:647px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_23914" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23914"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-23914">Ram Nath Kovind with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">By all indications, the dominant opinion that emerged in the internal deliberations, especially the ones at the level of the Sangh Parivar leadership, was that if Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections produced negative results, it would have repercussions on the BJP’s prospects in the national general election too in May 2024. Apparently, there was also the view that possible electoral reverses in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and, later at the national level could be avoided if all these elections are clubbed. Beyond this, the Sangh Parivar is said to be calculating that simultaneous elections would create a huge confusion and open fights among the components of the INDIA bloc across the country. It was surmised that Congress would have a national level thrust to enhance its overall political stature in the country while the regional forces would try to protect and advance their power equations and strengths at in the States.<figure class="image"><img alt="FTR-3-2-e1691832186515-768x259.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/FTR_3_2_e1691832186515_768x259_b0452e9e6a.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_FTR_3_2_e1691832186515_768x259_b0452e9e6a.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_FTR_3_2_e1691832186515_768x259_b0452e9e6a.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_FTR_3_2_e1691832186515_768x259_b0452e9e6a.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:640px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_23318" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23318"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-23318">Leaders from the opposition parties</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">It is not yet clear what concrete suggestions would come from Kovind and his team. Expectations are that the committee’s report would be submitted in Parliament during its five-day special session from September 18 to 22. The committee comprises Amit Shah, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission Chairman N.K. Singh, former Secretary-General of Lok Sabha Subhash C. Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve and former chief vigilance commissioner Sanjay Kothari. Though Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too was included in the committee, he refused to accept the nomination.&nbsp;<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">While the work of the committee and its potential recommendations are under wraps, speculation is rife about the realpolitik objectives and impact of the proposal. Now, a new, interesting discussion on the exercise is doing the rounds, primarily within the echelons of several Sangh Parivar outfits, including the RSS, the BJP, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) in the election-bound bound Madhya Pradesh and its adjoining State, Uttar Pradesh. Central to the discussions here is the dire agricultural situation in several States, especially in relation to the kharif harvest, which is due in late September and early October.&nbsp; &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img alt="image_2023-09-07_154852392-e1694081958641 (1).png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_09_07_154852392_e1694081958641_1_c35fce67c1.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_09_07_154852392_e1694081958641_1_c35fce67c1.png 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_2023_09_07_154852392_e1694081958641_1_c35fce67c1.png 500w" sizes="100vw" width="500"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);display:block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;height:auto;letter-spacing:normal;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:middle;white-space:normal;widows:2;width:600px;word-spacing:0px;" id="attachment_23915" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23915"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-23915">Workers harvesting crop at a field</figcaption></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">According to Sangh Parivar insiders in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the drought-like situation across northern India in the months of July and August was highlighted in the internal discussions within Sangh Parivar outfits. Water availability in July and August is crucial for a good kharif harvest. Senior activists of the BKS and the BMS in the two north Indian States told The AIDEM that the reports that they have got from other parts of the country, including election-bound Rajasthan as well as Maharashtra and Gujarat also underscore deficient rainfall and the possibility of a bad kharif harvest. These leaders added that along with the drought-like situation in some other parts of north India, States such as Himachal Pradesh and Punjab are suffering on account of untimely rainfall.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“Cumulatively”, a senior BKS leader based in Bhopal told The AIDEM, “what we are looking at is a situation where the harvest is not good for farmers, which in turn would result in a grave food crisis in the days to come”. The leader added that the multiple diverse effects of all these factors would start manifesting acutely from October and would carry on for many months. “The long and short of it”, he pointed out,” is that advancing elections to January 2024 and clubbing it with the Assembly election may not be the magic wand that Modi and Shah had envisioned in June, when they entrusted Kovind with the “One Nation One Election” project.<figure class="image"><img alt="image_2023-09-07_160239917.png" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/image_2023_09_07_160239917_d55c4d6a2c.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_image_2023_09_07_160239917_d55c4d6a2c.png 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_image_2023_09_07_160239917_d55c4d6a2c.png 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_image_2023_09_07_160239917_d55c4d6a2c.png 750w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_image_2023_09_07_160239917_d55c4d6a2c.png 1000w" sizes="100vw" width="1000"></figure><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1208px;" id="attachment_23919" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23919"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-23919">Details of Indian States with Assembly tenure ending in forthcoming months. Source: Election Commission of India</figcaption></figure>Apparently, the “loud thinking” within the Sangh Parivar outfits in continuation of this assessment was about ways and means to postpone the Assembly elections in the States that are expected to have elections by the end of the year. That is, postponing the Assembly elections in States like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan at least by four to five months so that they could be held along with the general election. However, neither this leader nor his associates were clear whether this is technically possible within the existing electoral rules and regulations.Clearly, the element of kharif harvest and its potential political and electoral impact has added a new complicating dimension to the “One Nation One Election” project. In any case, the kharif connection has aggravated the realpolitik discussions within the Sangh Parivar on the project. Even as the debate on this question spreads within the Sangh Parivar outfits and consequently in the larger political spectrum, the secrecy around the real and concrete agenda of the special session of Parliament continues. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have repeatedly and publicly asked the government to come clean on this and pointed out that no other Indian government since Independence has convened a special session of the Parliament without spelling out the agenda as the BJP has done now.<hr>ഈ ലേഖനം മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കാൻ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക, <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/ml-union-governments-committee-on-one-nation-one-election/">ഇവിടെ</a>.&nbsp;

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Discussions on the realpolitik motives and impact of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s “One Nation, One Election” proposal have come up in diverse platforms, including political spaces and the media over the past few days.

One Nation One Election: The Kharif Connection

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This is the third and final part of the edited transcript of renowned writer and journalist P. Sainath’s inaugural speech at the Panchajanyam film festival at Chittoor, Palakkad, Kerala. The event took place on February 4, 2024.

Remembrance is the Weapon of Resistance to Rediscover and Rescue India

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Whats_App_Image_2024_03_23_at_16_58_41_1_770x470_547850542b.jpeg" alt="WhatsApp-Image-2024-03-23-at-16.58.41-1-770x470.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Whats_App_Image_2024_03_23_at_16_58_41_1_770x470_547850542b.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Whats_App_Image_2024_03_23_at_16_58_41_1_770x470_547850542b.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Whats_App_Image_2024_03_23_at_16_58_41_1_770x470_547850542b.jpeg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Unsurprisingly, ‘Kisan Satyagraha’, a documentary on the 2020-21 farmers’ protests in Delhi, has been barred from screening at the ongoing 15th edition of Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFes) following “instructions” from the Union information and broadcasting ministry (MEITY). The documentary is directed by acclaimed Kannada director Kesari Haravoo .According to government officials, the screening of the documentary was not permitted because of its sensitive subject. What is sensitive is of course not known. It is also not explained as to what is “sensitive” about a film that genuinely reflects farmer’s anger against the three unjust farm laws that were later withdrawn even by the union government.“All the movies to be screened are cleared by the I&amp;B ministry. However, the ministry did not give a green signal to ‘Kisan Satyagraha’… The Central authorities have told us that the matter pictured in the documentary is a sensitive subject and hence it should be withheld from being screened at the film festival. Following the instructions, we have withdrawn the screening of ‘Kisan Satyagraha’. Otherwise, it should have been scheduled for screening on Friday,” said G Himanth Raju, registrar, Karnataka Chalanchithra Academy.Two other documentaries – one on Israel and the other on Ukraine (20 days in Mariupol) – have also not been given permission to be screened.‘Kisan Satyagraha’ captures the stir seeking repeal of three farm laws. It has been screened at four international film festivals. It won the best documentary award at the White Unicorn Film Festival.</div></div>

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Documentary ‘Kisan Satyagraha’ barred from Bengaluru Film Fest

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_08_26_T174751_772_913b43388d.jpeg" alt="images-2024-08-26T174751.772.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_08_26_T174751_772_913b43388d.jpeg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_08_26_T174751_772_913b43388d.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise for the reprehensible and false anti-farmer comments made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and actor Kangana Ranaut during a media interview. The SKM pointed out that the BJP MP, who is a habitual abuser of farmers, has now taken the extreme step of calling Indian farmers murderers, rapists, conspirators, and anti-national. The farmers body demanded an unconditional apology from Raut too. It asserted that if the MP does not apologise, she would have to face a public boycott.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_08_26_T174826_519_981fb27ce8.jpeg" alt="images-2024-08-26T174826.519.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_08_26_T174826_519_981fb27ce8.jpeg 208w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_08_26_T174826_519_981fb27ce8.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">The BJP on its part, stated that the views expressed by Raut was not the official view of the party. However, the farmers organisation added that Ranaut’s utterances are an extension of the BJP’s long-standing policy aimed at insulting, denigrating and discrediting the historic anti-corporate farmers’ movement led by SKM at the borders of Delhi. “Despite insults and deliberate provocation, SKM has always ensured that the farmers’ protests against the anti-farmer laws and pro-corporate policies of the BJP led Union Govt remains peaceful, lawful and in accordance with exercise of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of India.”The SKM stated further as follows. “The most significant achievement of the farmers’ movement was its massive character and the supreme sacrifice of 736 martyrs. Among them were the five victims of Lakhimpur Kheri massacre of four farmers and one journalist mowed down under running vehicles of Kangana Ranut’s party leader and former Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Teni and his son who are facing trial for murder charges. Not a single person was killed in any violence caused by the farmers’ movement during the entire period of farmers’ struggle around the Capital city.”Farmers’ movement is the successor of the great anti-colonial struggle of the Indian people against British Imperialism and still fights against the imperialist driven corporate forces and policies. It is better for Kangana Ranaut to try to learn the history and politics of the farmers’ movement in India before terming it as anti-national.It is high time the PM stands with the ‘annadatas’ of India and does not allow his party and its members to misbehave with those who are providing food security to the nation. It is not only the PM’s constitutional duty, but people of India expect no less from him. “ – the statement pointed out.</div></div>

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Modi Should Apologise for Kangana’s Anti-farmer Remarks, Demands SKM

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Because We Must Not Forget: An Andolanjeevi Artist Holds Up The Dark Mirror

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Dancing To Her Tune

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An Unwritten National Autobiography

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_6258d15665.jpeg" alt="images-1.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">People who read literature in India knew him, MT Vasudevan Nair. Language was no hurdle for his works to reach out beyond the state borders of Kerala. While Malayali diaspora took a handful of nostalgia along to the places they went, a little bit of MT was also in that.Today, the big business of literature finds translators to translate anything that moves. All tetrapods of literature are given awards that stink of corporate imperialistic nexus. But MT belonged to a different era when blood recognised blood, genius recognised genius. He got translated not once but several times.Basheer, Takazhi and MT were the triumvirate that could transcend the borders and stand tall among the Indian modernist literature. Yes, MT’s literature also had a fair amount of auto-fiction but he hoodwinked it with the magic of text. He was a persuasive minimalist both in writing and in person.An unsmiling MT could generate generations of readers who could smile through tears. MT wrote about a collapsing social structure that divested the old feudal class with their ill-gotten properties. But their social capital remained intact and could exert a lot of influence among the readers by becoming the surrogate emotional ethos of a transition time of Kerala’s socio-political history.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1196px;" id="attachment_31084" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31084"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg" alt="mt-1024x575.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31084">MT during his Interview with Sabha TV (Watch <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NttnjeaVqn0">Here</a>)</figcaption></figure>When society evolved into a different being altogether, MT turned to the treasure trove of myths and itihasas to eke out allegories that explained the pain of loss, of class, roots and love. His literature spat on the face of bigotry, whether it was religious or familial. He was so stoically poised in his literature that none could have challenged him and expelled him from the world of literature.MT’s literature spoke of love and separation as vehemently as he wrote about the changing social complexions. But he was not sentimental. There was something in his writing that touched some chord in every reader. Before initiating themselves into Ambedkarite politics, the Dalit ideologues also, in their torturous nights of youth, pined for MT’s characters.Those who call the modernists, Dad Vibes, have really lost the sight of the forest while focusing on shrubs and thicket. MT was a forest that moved, as in the great tragedies. He remained a serious writer while the post modernists fell in the trap of publishers and wrote lightning stories and became laughing stokes.MT remains, so is the MT critique. That’s the beauty of a great writer’s life and of course, death.</div></div>

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MT: A Forest that Moved

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An ‘Overture’ Stringing The Pope, Yesudas and the ‘Songster Chaplain’

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/1_cc9df0fe47.png" alt="വലതുപക്ഷവുമായുള്ള-സംവാദത്തിൻ്റെ-വ്യർത്ഥത-1.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_1_cc9df0fe47.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_1_cc9df0fe47.png 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;">When old age shall this generation waste,Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woeThan ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/6_904b2e9f2a.jpg" alt="6.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 147w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 470w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Siddharth Tagore, Founder Director of Delhi’s <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/artkonsultindia/photos">Art Konsult</a> Gallery is no more. He cannot be contained in such a cold statement, so matter of fact like death itself. Besides the gallery, he founded magazines such as Art and Deal, Travel and Deal and many other publications. Even when he knew that he wouldn’t make any profit out of the publications, he invested money in them because he knew art wouldn’t survive without the literature surrounding it.&nbsp;Yet another venture of Tagore’s was an auction house, namely Art Bull. The name was perfect for a bullish art market of the 2000s. But the glitch was this: Siddharth Tagore was not bullish. Nor was he bearish. He was cherubic, complete with a benign smile on his face and a burning cigarette between his fingers. Whenever I came out after having a meeting with him, I would ask myself, was he cut for this business?&nbsp;Tagore could have been a poet and dreamer like his internationally renowned namesake of yesteryears.. After the pandemic period I met Tagore after a gap of four years at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre where Art Konsult had organized a group exhibition. After the inaugural function, I shook hands with him and I realized that his hands had lost the firm grip though the warmth remained. “I have not been keeping well,” he told me.&nbsp;<div class="gallery galleryid-31051 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:30px -8.96875px 0px;padding:0px;" id="gallery-1"><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg" alt="c-768x993.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 387w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 580w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg" alt="b-768x985.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 122w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 390w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 585w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/a_7888f94e4b.jpg" alt="a.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 385w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 577w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></figure></div>Then on another occasion, at the same gallery, I met him again, this time without the crowd. He preferred to wear a pair of fading blue jeans and white shirt, a reminder of those romantic 1970s when every youth in West Bengal dreamt of poetry, love and revolution. Jeans and Shirt were the uniform of love and revolution. I think, when Tagore came to Delhi as a young man, he carried those qualities along, plus his sense of dressing. Lovers in those days smoked rather constantly and drank Old Monk Rum.&nbsp;On that day when I met him, Tagore told me that he had quit smoking, which was news to me. I couldn’t have imagined the man without a cigarette between his fingers or at least a packet of cigarettes to fuss with. I understood the gravity of the situation.&nbsp;Then again, we met when Praveen Upadhyay of the Progressive Gallery at Laddo Sarai organized a talk session with art professionals that included Tagore, Prayag Shukla, Vinod Bharadwaj and myself. Tagore was supposed to talk about the art market. When the mike was handed over to him, he fussed with it for a while and said that he always wanted to make it big by promoting young artists, but somehow, he never made huge business.<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:689px;" id="attachment_31054" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31054"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg" alt="7-768x511.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 235w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31054">Siddharth speaking to the media at Art Konsult</figcaption></figure>Then I remembered Tagore telling the same during the market boom years that lasted in India for around ten years starting from 2005 to 2015. In 2008, the world market had collapsed, but the Indian art market using its cunning and reserve withstood the pressures and dragged the impending failure for a few more years only to revive itself by the beginning of the third decade of the new millennium.&nbsp;Had Tagore acquired a penchant for failure despite his resilience in running a gallery, publications and an auction house for over three and a half decades ? Did he enjoy calling himself a failure in the art market? Was he romantically involved with the idea of failure even when he kept others who were with him in the business, floating? I don’t know for sure. But Tagore remained grounded and rooted; he tried his best to keep himself away from the nefarious market practices.&nbsp;There were a few people who stood with Tagore in his highs and lows (lows that lasted for not some months but for years together), never deserting him, following his orders. Prashant Seal and Rajula Bisht are two people I remember. These two people have been so close to his heart and even after his twin daughters joining him in the business, both Seal and Bisht never lost their position as the confidantes of Tagore. He loved them like family.&nbsp;I met Siddharth Tagore in 1995. He had started Art Konsult in Hauz Khas Village. Meena Tagore (now Meena Varma) was with him then. Late Vijayan Kannanpally was the editor of Art and Deal. With the growth of art scene, Tagore’s gallery also grew in stature. Art Konsult was one of the few A listed galleries in the city. Tagore took it to South Delhi’s art district, Laddo Sarai during the boom years and later relocated it to Hauz Khas again.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:562px;" id="attachment_31055" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31055"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg" alt="0-768x512.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31055">Siddharth Tagore with art critic and curator Jyoti A Kathpalia at the Art Konsult, New Delhi</figcaption></figure>It was in his Laddo Sarai phase that I joined him as the Editor of Art and Deal. It was the same when he decided to start Art Bull and Travel and Deal. I brought out around ten issues of Art and Deal between 2010 and 2013, with a gap in 2012 when I joined the United Art Logistics to establish the United Art Fair. Tagore literally lent me to the other organization with a promise that I could walk into the editor’s office at any time that I wanted. And I did go back.&nbsp;As a part of Tagore’s team, he gave me full freedom to edit the magazine and curate exhibitions. I curated a few shows and introduced a few new artists of which some are very reckonable names in today’s art scene. The exhibition ‘Merging/Submerging’ was a showcasing of contemporary photography art and ‘R.A.P.E’ (Rare Acts of Political Engagement), an all-woman show responding to the brutal murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi. This exhibition was a super hit and was discussed in all the print and television media. Art Bull did do a couple of exhibitions and auctions. I did not take much interest in it though Tagore hoped that his auction house could change the scenario and also break certain monopolies. Tagore also initiated an Art History Lecture series which I conducted on his behalf.&nbsp;Siddharth Tagore remained true to his calling. With a kind of detachment, he sponsored exhibitions that he knew well, would not bring any business. He was an avid collector of folk and tribal art and together with Meena Varma, he initiated an organization called ‘Art of the Earth’ for promoting the folk and tribal art of India, much before the ‘folkploitation’ of today’s art market became rampant. Tagore helped whoever came to him with a request for an exhibition or an immediate financial relief. &nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:640px;" id="attachment_31053" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31053"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg" alt="3-e1734762508660-669x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 102w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 327w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 490w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 653w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31053">Siddharth Tagore signing the <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amzn.in/d/4TijcgO">book</a> “Ganika- In the visual culture of the 19th-20th Century India” at the Art Konsult</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg" alt="4-560x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 85w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 273w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 410w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 547w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">When artists in Calcutta packed their wares and set out for Delhi, they knew Siddharth Tagore was there if nothing else worked (perhaps he was their primary destination), along with cigarettes and Old Monk Rum. He never discouraged the people who came to him with a clear intention to exploit. He was not cautious about relationships that brought him a fair amount of heartburn. As I said elsewhere, Tagore was a poet in his heart, with a heart ready to bleed for love and art.</div></div>

In support of the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally

One Nation One Election: The Kharif Connection

Remembrance is the Weapon of Resistance to Rediscover and Rescue India

Documentary ‘Kisan Satyagraha’ barred from Bengaluru Film Fest

Modi Should Apologise for Kangana’s Anti-farmer Remarks, Demands SKM

Because We Must Not Forget: An Andolanjeevi Artist Holds Up The Dark Mirror

Dancing To Her Tune

An Unwritten National Autobiogra...

MT: A Forest that Moved

An ‘Overture’ Stringing The Pope...

Salutations, Dear Siddharth Tago...

farmers protest 1

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