It also said that the Internet shutdown in seven districts of Haryana and three districts of Rajasthan, had made it extremely difficult for journalists to cover the protests.

AMID reports of Haryana police using drones to fire tear gas shells and lath-charging at the Punjab-Haryana border injuring over 100 farmers, some journalists on reporting assignment were also injured.

THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), in a statement issued on February 14, has condemned the violent repression unleashed on farmers marching to Delhi at Shanbhu Border and other places. The use of drones to throw teargas, the concrete barricades, rubber bullets, huge iron spikes on the roads and the indiscriminate arrests of farmers and leaders exposes the barbaric face of the BJP government led by Narendra Modi.The use of drones to drop tear gas on farmers shows the extreme vengeance that this BJP government holds for the farmers of our country.

THE finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, in her interim budget speech announced the setting up of a high-powered committee “to study the challenges of fast population growth and demographic changes”.  The announcement of such a committee in a budget speech was itself a curious one.  If the government intended to frame a new population policy based on a committee to study population growth, it should have found a mention in the president’s address to parliament.The purpose of the high-powered committee is also unclear as the fact of “fast population growth” is itself a contestable one.  Fur

A MINI marathon was organised by the Salem district unit of Tamil Nadu Platform for People's Unity on January 28, at Salem town’s Gandhi playground, to promote unity and communal harmony.                      Thousands of youth, boys and girls, enthusiastically participated in the mini marathon that started in the morning at 7:30 am.The team that organised the marathon conducted an extensive outreach programme in the city's schools and colleges.

THE Maharashtra state committees of the SFI and DYFI organised an impressive statewide rally and public meeting of students and youth at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on January 31, 2024. The last statewide rally of the SFI-DYFI was held six years ago in 2018. The two main slogans of this rally which were popularised all over Maharashtra were “stop hate, lies and violence!” and “save education, give jobs!” Around 5,000 students and youth from 16 districts of the state took part in the rally.