Other press describes protests of tens of thousands. 250M is far-fetched.
250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
11–20 of 65 posts
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#12Farmers have been commiting suicide since the west imposed the green revolution in India, offering pesticides and chemicals changing crop yields and creating a big disparity between farmers, some became very rich and some poor. As a result they were already angry, this bill now is being used by opposition parties to spread misinformation, which gives them a combined reason to go out and protest. It is also funded by the opposition
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#13For the Western audience, tl;dr is that these reforms will allow free market to decide the price. This has made a lot of people very mad who had their own monopoly. Farmers do have legitimate concerns about predatory pricing by private institutions but as a whole, the agriculture employs 45% of the country's population and contributes a measly 14% or so to the economy. There's a big problem of hidden unemployment in…
You mean like the time they tried to go to a cashless economy without any real alternative for the majority of the population?
The main thing the bjp has as far as I can see is a violent hatred of Muslims, which in a country with the largest population of Muslims in the world is not going to end well.
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#14For the Western audience, tl;dr is that these reforms will allow free market to decide the price. This has made a lot of people very mad who had their own monopoly. Farmers do have legitimate concerns about predatory pricing by private institutions but as a whole, the agriculture employs 45% of the country's population and contributes a measly 14% or so to the economy. There's a big problem of hidden unemployment in…
According to the article there are many other objections/demands and this is not just about free market pricing:
Some of the key demands contained in the 12-point charter put forward by the organizers include withdrawal of a series of laws recently passed by the Modi government repealing key labor and farm price protections, a rollback in the recent disinvestment policies in major government-owned enterprises, implementation of existing welfare schemes for rural workers, and expanding welfare policies to aid the masses affected by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Privatization of government-owned enterprises sounds like a potential red flag just by itself if they're key services like the power grid or a health system (just hypothetical, since it's not clear which services are in question). Repealing labor protections is potentially very bad. A lack of aid for masses impacted by the COVID pandemic by itself is already justification for a strike by itself if the government is ignoring the needs of the people.
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#15Even though Indian Economy is about 16% agri, 60% of the population is dependent on Agriculture. Any kind of Agricultural reforms will have reaction at this scale whether the fears are real or perceived.
If that 60% is going to be dragooned from getting all of that 16% to some tiny sliver of a higher total number under the neoliberal reforms, then their fears are entirely justified.
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#16For the Western audience, tl;dr is that these reforms will allow free market to decide the price. This has made a lot of people very mad who had their own monopoly. Farmers do have legitimate concerns about predatory pricing by private institutions but as a whole, the agriculture employs 45% of the country's population and contributes a measly 14% or so to the economy. There's a big problem of hidden unemployment in…
Thanks for elaborating, the article doesn’t really explain exactly what measures the Indian government did to inflame such a protest but between the communist flags the protestors hold, and what groups comprises the bulk of protestors I had an idea.
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of flags and banners with hammers and sickles?
Are votes illegitimate because the voter is a communist? Whether someone has a right to vote in a democratic system shouldn't depend on their politics or gender or race.
Most people care about democracy not in the abstract procedural sense but because it tends to produce human rights respecting outcomes. We aren’t obligated to abstractly uphold democracy in the face of a majority holding Nazi symbols. The same logic should apply to other symbols of extreme oppression such as communist paraphernalia.
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#18Modi chose politics as career to make money; He doesn't have any credible qualifications/skills other than bigotry/raconteur https://www.modilies.in/
He is proxy to https://archive.is/NcaKE
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#19For the Western audience, tl;dr is that these reforms will allow free market to decide the price. This has made a lot of people very mad who had their own monopoly. Farmers do have legitimate concerns about predatory pricing by private institutions but as a whole, the agriculture employs 45% of the country's population and contributes a measly 14% or so to the economy. There's a big problem of hidden unemployment in…
Thanks for elaborating, the article doesn’t really explain exactly what measures the Indian government did to inflame such a protest but between the communist flags the protestors hold, and what groups comprises the bulk of protestors I had an idea.
A)Funded by opposition and foreign players. Always a presence whenever civil unrest is involved.
B)India has a love-hate relationship with communism. We are a poor country because of it, but poverty pushes more people to communism.
C)Whenever you see an article about India, don't put it in white or black. With a country of about 1.5 billion, nothing is black or white, ever.
Re: 250M people participate in nationwide strike in India
#20For the Western audience, tl;dr is that these reforms will allow free market to decide the price. This has made a lot of people very mad who had their own monopoly. Farmers do have legitimate concerns about predatory pricing by private institutions but as a whole, the agriculture employs 45% of the country's population and contributes a measly 14% or so to the economy. There's a big problem of hidden unemployment in…
You mean like the time they tried to go to a cashless economy without any real alternative for the majority of the population? The main thing the bjp has as far as I can see is a violent hatred of Muslims, which in a country with the largest population of Muslims in the world is not going to end well.
We did get a strong online payment system because of it. It is bearing fruits, just not as well as we'd hoped. And yes, I'm aware of the problems it caused too.
Look, I'm a strong liberal but it's hard not to dislike the Muslims if you were born before 2000 (which most of the BJP brass is). Muslims just don't assimilate well. And not their fault to a large degree, but actively protesting against raising the marriage age, triple talaq and faulting the French government in the latest bombing. They have lots of countries to do this, I don't want India becoming any more polarized or extremist. Every side is playing this politics, BJP is just doing it successfully.