The student-cum-activist, identified as Disha Rabi, was picked up from her house in connection with the case. Disha Ravi is accused of disseminating the toolkit.

Disha Ravi is one of the founders of the “Friday for Future” campaign — a global climate strike movement that started in August 2018 when Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate. During the investigation, according to the officers of the special cell, Disha Ravi revealed she edited the toolkit associated with the farmers, added some items and then sent it ahead.

Delhi Police had on February 4 registered a case against the “pro-Khalistan” creators of a “toolkit”, which was shared by teen climate activist Greta Thunberg and others on Twitter in connection with the farmers’ protest, alleging it aimed to wage a “social, cultural and economic war against the Government of India”. Delhi Police had also claimed that the creator of the “toolkit” is a Khalistani group.

Greta Thunberg had shared the toolkit while extending her support to the farmers’ protest in India after the chaos and widespread violence on Republic Day during the farmers’ tractor rally. According to reports, many others will be arrested in the Greta Thunberg “toolkit” case.

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The Home Ministry has also ordered Delhi Police to ask the accused farmer leaders to submit their passports.

The farmer leaders have been asked why action should not be taken against them when they have gone against their agreement with Delhi Police and were in talks with them for days. The farmer leaders have been asked to reply within three days.

Delhi Police has been asked to serve notices to more than 20 farmer leaders, including Yogendra Yadav Baldev Singh Sirsa and Rajewal. The farmer leaders have been asked to answer within three days the reasons behind the protesters flouting rules and going against the agreed route of the tractor rally.

A day after violence during the tractor parade, the Delhi Police has named 37 farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadav and Medha Patkar, in an FIR that mentioned charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder among others.

The action against the farmer leaders came as Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava alleged that several of them made inflammatory speeches and were involved in the violence.

Police has also said that the role of farmer leaders will be investigated in connection with the violence that left 394 security personnel injured and a protestor dead. So far 25 FIRs have been filed over the Republic Day rampage.

According to the FIR registered at Samaypur Badli police station against unknown persons, the protestors robbed the official pistol with 10 rounds of ammunition along with two tear gas guns during the violence.

The farmer leaders named in the FIR include Medha Patkar, Yogendra Yadav, Darshan Pal, Gurnam Singh Chanduni, Rakesh Tikait, Kulwant Singh Sandhu, Satnam Singh Pannu, Joginder Singh Ugraha, Surjeet Singh Phool, Jagjeet Singh Dalewal, Balbir Singh Rajewal and Harinder Singh Lakhoval.

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While the order does not mention the reason behind the closure, it refers to earlier orders of January 6 and January 18 whereby the iconic monument was closed from January 19 to January 22 due to a bird flu alert.

The monument was also shut from January 22 to January 26 due to the Republic Day celebrations. However, it was supposed to be open for visitors on January 27, but it did not.

It is believed that this time the closure time will be utilised to ascertain any damage that might have been caused to the iconic monument when it was overrun by protesters on January 26.

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel toured the Red Fort on Wednesday to take stock of the situation. He has sought a report on the incident from the ASI.

Pictures and videos showing sections of the Red Fort complex, including the metal detector gate and ticket counter, vandalized surfaced on social media in the aftermath of the Republic Day violence.

There is a total of 173 monuments in Delhi protected under the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI). These included Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb and Qutab Minar – all three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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Amid celebration for 72nd Republic Day across the country, farmers allowed to hold their tractor rally- “Kissan Parade”- in Delhi after the annual event at the iconic Rajpath. However, protestors, force their way into the city, much ahead of the time they were granted permission by Delhi police for their tractor parade.

The Delhi Police on Monday gave a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the protesting farmer unions for their proposed Republic Day tractor parade with 37 conditions, including capping the number of participants and allocating a fixed time slot.

Unprecedented visuals showed chaos unfolding at the Singhu border, which divides Delhi and Haryana and has been the epicenter of protests against the farm laws that began in late November. More than 5,000 protesters had gathered at the Singhu border.

In west Delhi near the Tikri border, farmers’ leaders asked the protesters to maintain calm after the march began at around 9 AM. “Our rally will be peaceful and we will stick to the routes assigned,” a leader said to news media.

The farm leaders have claimed that the Delhi police are stopping them from moving towards the route the farmers and police earlier agreed upon. “We’ve to move towards Ring Road but the police are stopping us. We’ve given them 45 mins to speak to their seniors. We’re carrying out a peaceful parade. The route they are asking us to follow wasn’t agreed upon,” Satnam Singh Pannu, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee at Singhu Border said to ANI.

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Tomar said the government is ready to hold discussions with farmer union leaders with an open mind. Earlier, talks between the farmer unions and the government did not make much headway in breaking the deadlock.

Earlier this week the Supreme Court-appointed a four-member expert panel to hear farmers’ grievances. However, the farmer union dismissed the Supreme Court-appointed four-member panel to end the stalemate. However, the unions have confirmed they will not pull out from talks.

Meanwhile, the farmer union leaders also appealed to all protesters to maintain peace and harmony during the tractor parade on Republic Day. Bharat Kisan Union (BKU) leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said the details of the tractor parade in Delhi will be finalised next week after the talks with the government.

The BKU leader also appealed to farmers to act as volunteers and keep an eye on anyone trying to defame the struggle saying “we can win only through peaceful means”.

The three controversial laws are the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.

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The seven-member Coordination Committee of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha made the announcement. Balbir Singh Rajewal, President of Bhartiya Kisan Union, Punjab (Rajeal Group) and Krantikari Kisan Union President Darshan Pal said, “We have given a call for a tractor-trolley parade into Delhi from the borders of the national capital on January 26. This tractor parade with national flag will be called ‘farmers republic parade’ and will take place after the official parade.”

Six rounds of talks have taken place between the Indian government and the farmer’s union so far. While the farmers and central government have reached a consensus on issues related to the environment and electricity act, which the farmers call ‘minor’ issues. The deadlock continued on the two main demands, legal assurance on Minimum Support Price(MSP) and completely repealing the three farm laws. The next round of talk will take place on January 4.

Ironically, more than 850 faculty members of several educational institutions across the country of various educational institutions across the country have come forward with a signature campaign in support of three federal farm laws, against which thousands of farmers are protesting on borders of the national capital over a month.

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In his letter, Tomar claimed that several farmers’ unions in the country have “welcomed” the new farm laws, but there are some farmers’ unions camping outside Delhi who have created “confusions” regarding these laws. He also said the government is ready to give a written assurance regarding MSP.

Meanwhile, The Supreme Court postponed the hearing and advised the government to consider putting the farm reform laws on hold. The court once again suggested forming a committee to resolve the deadlock. Also, a bench of the Delhi High Court refused to entertain a PIL seeking removal of agitating farmers from Delhi’s borders.

Farmers’ leaders — Balbir Singh rajewal, JS Dallellwal, Bhangu, Kiranjit Sikh will meet lawyers — HS Phoolka, Prashant Bhushan, Dushyant Dave, Colin Gonsalves — today. During the hearing of a plea in the Supreme Court farmers were represented by lawyers Vineet Parikh, Prashant Bhushan, Colin Gonsalves and Dushyant Dave, while the central government was represented in court by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, senior advocates Harish Salve and OP Parihar appeared for the petitioner.

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PM Modi is visiting Kutch to lay the foundation stone of 30,000-megawatt (MW) hybrid renewable energy park , four seawater desalination plants and modern milk processing plant of Sarhad Dairy.

The PM will land in Kutch district headquarters Bhuj and fly to Tent City, the venue of the annual Rann Utsav at Dhordo village near Khavda, around 80 km west of Bhuj.

The number of protesters at Delhi’s borders is growing by the day. According to reports, police officials said the borders can’t take more people as “the situation is increasingly turning unsustainable”. Hayana Police said more than 60,000 protesters are camping at the borders while the farm leaders said the figure is higher.

Meanwhile two farmers died and eight injured in a road accident between tractor-trolley and truck near Trawari tehsil of Karnal district of Haryana at midnight on December 14-15. All farmers in trolley were from Safera village of Patiala in Punjab. They were coming back from Delhi borders to Punjab.

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A few days ago, the farmers protest called out to boycott services offered by major corporate bands, including Adani and Reliance.

However rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea(Vi), have refuted the charges calling it “baseless”.

In a letter to the Trai, jio blamed Airtel and Vi of launching a “vicious” campaign . The telecom company said that “large number of port requests” , wherein the customers are citing this as the sole reason for porting out Jio without any complaints or other issues related to its services.

“This is further to our aforementioned letter dated 28 September 2020 highlighting the unethical and anti-competitive MNP campaign, being run by Airtel and Vi to capitalize on the ongoing farmers’ protests in the northern parts of the country,” the letter by Jio went on to add.

Meanwhile Airtel has termed the charges levelled against it by Jio as “baseless”. “Despite being provoked by some competitors who we know will go to any length to make baseless allegations, adopt bullying tactics and use intimidatory behaviour we have always conducted our business with character and transparency something that we are deeply proud of and known for,” Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Vodafone India, now Vi, also issued a statement to that effect saying, “Vi believes in doing business with ethics. These are baseless allegations against us to malign our reputation. We strongly refute such irresponsible comments on us.”

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While the farmers’ union leaders stuck to their demand for the repeal of the new farm laws, the government said they are ready to make amendments but not repeal. The farmers have rejected all the offers of amendments to the farm laws and maintained that the Bharat Bandh call on Tuesday (December 8) will go as planned with several Opposition parties extending their full support.

The next meeting is on December 9. Meanwhile Congress leader said that farm laws have to be revoked dubbing it as Adani- Ambani farm laws.

Meanwhile Delhi Chief Minister Arivind Kejriwal along with his cabinet colleagues met farmers on Monday at the Singhu border, where they have been protesting against the new farm laws which the government had passed in September.

Expressing his solidarity to farmers, Olympic winning boxer Vijendar Singh has said he would return the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Retna Award- India’s highest sporting honour- if the centre does not repeal the three continuous farm laws.

“If the government doesn’t withdraw the black laws, I will return my Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award,” said the boxer, who won the first ever Olympic medal for India in the sport in 2008.

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Amit Shah had appealed to the protesting farmers to move to the designated site of protest at Delhi’s Nirankari ground. He also assured the farmers that the government will consider their concerns and demands as soon as they shift.

Surjeeth Singh Paul, state president of BKU Krantikari (Punjab) said during a press conference that the condition put forward for talks is an insult to farmers. He also confirmed that the protestors wouldn’t go to Burari, terming the place as an open jail.

Meanwhile the situation remained tensed around Delhi, as thousands of farmers from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajashthan and Punjab continued to join the farmers’protest at the border areas.

The police remain on high altert in view of the thousands gathering at Delhi borders. However the police did not use force to block the commute of the farmers.

Meanwhile the leaders of the protesting farmers will hold a press conference at Singhu border at 4pm on their further course of action.

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Addressing the nation through his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio programme, PM Narendra Modi said, “Parliament has recently passed farm reform laws after rigorous brainstorming. These reforms have not only broken the shackles of farmers but have also given new rights and opportunities to them.

“Agricultural reforms in the past few days have opened new doors of possibilities for our farmers,” PM Narendra Modi said, adding that under these reforms, the SDM of the areas will have to settle the complaints of the farmers within a month.

PM Narendra Modi said, “There is another big thing in the law. Under these laws, the farmers will have their complaints resolved within a month. The SDM of the area will have to settle the complaint of a farmer within one month under these laws.”

The Prime Minister’s statement came amid the raging farmers’protest. The farmers from states like Punjab and Haryana braved through police’s tear gas shells, water cannons and multi-layer barriers to block the protestors, for the Delhi Chalo march.

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According to reports, close to 15-20 unidentified people belonging to the Punjab Youth Congress gathered at the India Gate on Monday morning and set the tractor on fire. The incident took place around at 7.42 am and two fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

#WATCH: Punjab Youth Congress workers stage a protest against the farm laws near India Gate in Delhi. A tractor was also set ablaze. pic.twitter.com/iA5z6WLGXR

— ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2020

The group of people gathered at the spot raised slogans like “Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Amar rahe” (Long live Shaheed Bhagat Singh), and “Kisaan-Virodhi, Narendra Modi” (Anti-farmers, Narendra Modi).’

The incident comes amid protests by farmers and opposition parties across the country over the contentious farm legislations that were passed by the Parliament last week.

Meanwhile, Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar slammed Congress and called it a drama. “Congress workers brought tractor near India Gate and set it on fire. This is the drama of Congress. Hence, the Congress was evicted from power by the people,” Javadekar tweeted.

कांग्रेस के कार्यकर्ताओं ने ट्रक में ट्रेक्टर लाए और इंडिया गेट के पास जलाया। यही है कांग्रेस का नाटक। इसलिए कांग्रेस को लोगों ने सत्ता से बेदखल किया। https://t.co/uPOFizT3KR

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) September 28, 2020

President Ram Nath Kovind on September 27 gave assent to three contentious farm bills passed in Parliament last week that have triggered farmers’ protest especially in Punjab and Haryana.

The three farm bills are: The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020.

The government said that these bills will allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere they want at a better price.

However farmers fear that the center’s reforms would pave a way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, which might give big advantages to corporates, leaving farmers at their mercy.

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The announcement comes over a week after Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the cabinet in protest against three ordinances- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.

Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal has said the party was never consulted on the ordinances, and that Harsimrat , his wife, had informed the government about farmers’ reservations.

SAD was one of the oldest allies of the BJP. It was amongst the first to support the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal is a founder member of National Democratic Alliance.

The two Bills – which seek to replace Ordinances passed in June – were passed in Parliament by voice vote and await the assent of the President. SAD had voted against the Bills.

Farmers in Haryana and Punjab have been agitating against the Bills. On September 25, SAD held large protests across Punjab as part of its ‘chakka jam’ programme to express solidarity with farmers even as it asked CM Amarinder Singh to call an immediate Cabinet meeting and pass an ordinance to declare the entire state as one mandi (Principal Market Yard) to ensure the central agricultural Bills are not enforceable in the state.

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The three farm bills—Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill- were passed by the Lok Sabha recently.
While the farmers and the Opposition have termed the farm bills as “anti-farmer” which would leave them at the “mercy” of big corporates, the Centre says it would open up new opportunities for them to make them “atma-nirbhar [self-reliant]”

In Haryana, the farmers have decided to block all roads, including highways. Additional Chief Secretary (home) Vajai Vardhan has asked the officers to deal with protesters with “tact and patience”. However, he added that “they (protesters) should not be allowed to take law in their hands and prompt action be taken against those found to be indulging in loot, arson or damage to life, property or vehicles”.

While the ruling dispensation appears to have the numbers despite strong opposition from the Congress and other parties to clear the Bills, some key BJP leaders are said to be in touch with various regional outfits to seek support from their Upper House members for these bills.

BJD, SAD urge govt to send farm bills to select committee amid uproar

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