Farmers’ protest: Amid the ongoing agitation by farmers demanding legal recognition of Minimum Support Price, prominent agricultural economist Dr Sardara Singh Johl has said that giving MSP on all crops “is not practical”. Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act-2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21.
Speaking at a panel discussion at the ongoing Munich Security Conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock, EAM Jaishankar callled Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 an act of terrorism. “Number one, we must be clear that what happened on October 7th was terrorism. No caveats, no justification, no explanation. It was terrorism. Number two, as Israel responds, it is important that Israel should be, should have been very mindful of civilian casualties, that it has an obligation to observe international humanitarian law,” Jaishankar said. The Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024 got underway on February 16 in the German capital and will conclude today.
