Court Deadline To Punjab Over Fasting Farm Leader's Health

Chandigarh:

Farm activists at the Khanauri border point have increased security around the protest site, fearing that the Punjab government might once again try to whisk away the fasting veteran farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and get him hospitalised.

The steps came in the wake of the Supreme Court's order that gave the Punjab government time till December 31 to persuade Dallewal, who has been fasting for over a month, to shift to hospital.

The 67-year-old has been on hunger strike since November 26 to press the Centre to accept farmers' demands, including a legal guarantee for a minimum support price (MSP).

The top court on Saturday granted the state government additional time to comply with its December 20 order and instructed the Centre to provide logistical support if requested.

The Punjab government, while acknowledging the court's concerns, maintained that the government was in a difficult position.

"The entire protest site is under siege by farmers who refuse to let him be moved. Any use of force may lead to collateral damage, both to the farmers and the police," Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh argued in the court.

The farmers have set up 24x7 vigils at the site and restricted access to Dallewal has become a major challenge for the police.

Dallewal has been on hunger strike since November 26 to press the Centre to accept farmers' demands.

The Supreme Court on Saturday lashed out at the Punjab government for its inability to hospitalise Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike for over a month, despite repeated medical advice, observing that this is not just a "failure of law-and-order machinery" but also an "abetment to suicide".

Marking the second consecutive day the state faced the court's ire for not complying with repeated orders to ensure Dallewal's hospitalisation, the top court also lambasted those obstructing his hospitalisation, stating that the Supreme Court would not succumb to pressure and would not tolerate "a violent face" of the farmers' movement.

Convening a special sitting during the vacation, a bench of justices Surya Kant and Sudhanshu Dhulia condemned the state's handling of the situation, questioning why it allowed "a virtual fort to be created" around the protest site, adding the state government seems to support the agitation that may result in Dallewal's death.

The matter has been adjourned to December 31, with the court warning that it would take strict action against the state chief secretary KAP Sinha and DGP Gaurav Yadav if its directions regarding Dallewal's hospitalisation were not followed.

The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government came under fire from the Supreme Court on the second consecutive day on Saturday even as the state's chief secretary and director general of police (DGP) cited "fear of resistance and violence" and "collateral damage" as reasons for not being able to shift Dallewal to a hospital.

The two officers, who face contempt proceedings for not complying with the December 20 order of the court regarding Dallewal's hospitalisation, remained present virtually during the court proceedings, as per the bench's directive on Saturday.

Punjab's advocate general Gurminder Singh went on to the extent of saying that the state is "helpless" in complying with the court order for moving Dallewal to a hospital.

Singh informed the court that multiple medical boards have been monitoring Dallewal's health and that senior Ministers and the Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan had attempted to persuade him to seek medical aid.

However, Dallewal and several groups of farmers continued to resist hospitalisation, citing their demands for MSP guarantees and other agrarian reforms.

Reading out the affidavit submitted by the chief secretary and DGP, the Attorney General admitted that multiple groups of farmers had encircled the protest site, preventing authorities from moving Dallewal to a hospital.

"Who has allowed this situation to perpetuate? Who has let a virtual fort be created around him? Is this not a failure of law-and-order machinery?" the bench asked pointedly.

"This is not a question of demands or agitation. Preventing someone who is critically unwell from receiving medical treatment is unacceptable and unheard of. This is a criminal offence and nothing short of abetment to suicide," it added.

The bench further observed that the Punjab government's actions suggested tacit support for the protestors preventing Dallewal's hospitalisation.

"Your affidavit gives the impression that the state is supporting him in continuing his fast at the site. Let us be very clear -- the farmers' agitation is a separate issue and we have repeatedly said through our orders that their demands would be looked into. But allowing a man's life to be endangered in this manner is a failure of constitutional duty," the bench remarked.

The court expressed dismay that the state was failing to strike a balance between maintaining law and order and protecting human life. Addressing the AG and the top officials present, the bench said: "Your officers have seen Punjab's history of tackling significant challenges. Punjab has a glorious history of dealing with difficult situations in the past."

As Singh said that farmers could agree to Dallewal's hospitalisation if some "conciliation" was offered to them, the court responded: "It's becoming clear that the government is speaking in their voice, but we are a constitutional court and we will not budge. If anyone wants to pressure us or put a precondition, we are not going to accept it...And you don't have to be their spokesperson. We have already offered our platform to them."

The bench granted the Punjab government additional time to comply with its December 20 order. It also instructed the Centre to provide logistical support if requested.

"We are with the people of Punjab and the farmer community. Our orders are not adversarial but aim to protect the life of one of the state's tallest farmer leaders," the court said.

The matter has been adjourned to December 31, with the court warning that it would take strict action against the state chief secretary and DGP if its directions regarding Dallewal's hospitalisation were not followed.

The court also questioned the motives of those obstructing Dallewal's hospitalisation, describing their actions as detrimental to the farmer community.

"There appears to be peer pressure. What kind of farmer leaders are there who want Dallewal to die? We don't want to comment on the bona fide of such leaders who want him to die like this. He seems to be under pressure or such kind of leader. If Dallewal is under peer pressure, what does it say about the bonafide of these so-called leaders?" the bench asked.

Emphasising the urgency of the situation, the court observed, "Dallewal can continue his fast in a hospital where his vitals can be managed. He does not need to break his fast, but he cannot be allowed to endanger his life in this manner."

It told the top officers that they must communicate to the people at the protest site that those preventing Dallewal's hospitalisation want to deprive the farmer community of one of its tallest leaders.

During previous hearings on December 18 and 20, the court had cautioned that "the entire state machinery will bear the blame" if any harm befell Dallewal.

Dallewal's hunger strike, which began on November 26, is part of a broader agitation demanding systemic agricultural reforms and legal guarantees for MSP. Protests under the banners of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have caused significant disruptions in Punjab and Haryana.

Despite mediation efforts by a Supreme Court-appointed committee, the impasse has continued.

The committee's report has highlighted critical agrarian challenges, including unsustainable farming practices and mounting farmer debts, urging swift government intervention.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Punjab farmers call for 'Kisan Mahapanchayat' on January 4

பஞ்சாப் முடக்கம் விவசாயிகள் 'பந்த்' வெற்றி

அன்னை இந்திரா,உலகமய நாயகன் மன் மோகன் சிங் பாதையில் பாசிச மோடி ஆட்சியின் உலகமய தனியார்மய தாராளமய பொருளாதாரக் கொள்கைகளின் `உலகமய வளர்ச்சி`, இலட்சோபம் இலட்சம் இந்திய விவசாயிகளை வாட்டி வதைத்து வருகின்றது.

பசி,பஞ்சம், பட்டினியும், கடன் தற்கொலையும் வருடா வருடம் அதிகரித்த வண்ணம் உள்ளன.இது வரையில் கடன் தற்கொலை மட்டும் ஏழு இலட்சத்தைத் தாண்டி விட்டதாக விவசாய சங்கங்கள் குற்றம் சாட்டுகின்றன. 

 

மோடி ஆட்சியின் `உலகமய வளர்ச்சி`ப் பாதை விவசாயத்தை புறந்தள்ளி,அதானி அம்பானி கும்பலின் தரகுத் தொழில் துறையயும்,ஏகாதிபத்திய சேவைத்துறையையும் ஊக்குவித்து வருவதே விவசாயிகளின் இத் துர்ப்பாக்கிய நிலைக்கு காரணமாகும்.

பஞ்சாப் விவசாய மாநிலத்தை இது நேரடியாக பெரிதும் பாதித்து வருகின்றது, தமிழகத்திலும் இத் தற்கொலைச் சாவுகள் அதிகரித்த வண்ணம் உள்ளன.

இவை தேசிய உணர்வையும் இயக்கங்களையும் தூண்டி வருகின்றன. இதனால் பாசிச மோடி அரசும், அதன் அடிவருடி மாநில அரசுகளும் விவசாய இயக்கங்களை இரும்புக் கரம் கொண்டு நசுக்கி வருகின்றன. நக்சல்பாரி புகழ் பூத்த, தமிழக அரசு இதற்கு விதிவிலக்கல்ல.

எனினும் இந்தியா எங்கும் விவசாயக் கிளர்ச்சிகள் இந்த அடக்குமுறைகளுக்கு அஞ்சாது வெடித்துக் கிளர்ந்த வண்ணம் உள்ளன. பஞ்சாப் மாநிலம் இதில் முன்னிலையில் உள்ளது.

இத் தொடர் போராட்டத்தின் ஒரு பகுதியாக இன்று 30-12-24 அன்று கோரப்பட்ட `பஞ்சாப் முடக்கம்` பந்த்-வேலை நிறுத்தம்- பஞ்சாப் மாநிலம் முழுவதையும் ஸ்தம்பிக்கச் செய்து பெரு வெற்றி அடைந்துள்ளது.

மேலும் ஜனவரி 4 புதிய ஆண்டில் நாடு தழுவிய பேரணிக்கு அழைப்பு விடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

இந்திய விவசாயிகள் கிளர்ச்சி ஓங்குக! வெல்க!!

மோடி ஆட்சியே விவசாய சங்க கோரிக்கைகளை உடனே நிறைவேற்று!

பஞ்சாப் டெல்கி பாதையில் முளைத்துள்ள `கொங்கிரீற் மலைகளை` அகற்று!

போராடும் விவசாயிகள் மீது அடக்குமுறை வன்முறையை ஏவாதே!

என புதிய ஈழப் புரட்சியாளர்கள் முழங்குகின்றனர். ENB

சென்னை புத்தகக் காட்சி 2025

48-ஆவது சென்னை புத்தகக் காட்சி சென்னை நந்தனம் வை.எம்.சி.ஏ. மைதானத்தில் 27/12/2024 வெள்ளிக்கிழமை   மாலை 4 மணி அளவில் 

தொடங்கி, 12/01/2025 வரை நடைபெற உள்ளது.

புத்தகக்காட்சி விடுமுறை நாட்களில் காலை 11 மணி முதல் இரவு 8.30 மணி வரை நடைபெறும்.

வேலை நாட்களில் பிற்பகல் 2 மணி முதல் இரவு 8.30 மணி வரை நடைபெறும்.

Puthiya Jannayakam Publishers. Stall NoS 245-246

Puthiya Jannayakam Publishers. Stall NoS 245-246

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun

An artist's concept showing Parker Solar Probe. Credits: NASA/APL

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes History With Closest Pass to Sun

Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received late on Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.

This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.

 "Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” said Nicky Fox, who leads the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By studying the Sun up close, we can better understand its impacts throughout our solar system, including on the technology we use daily on Earth and in space, as well as learn about the workings of stars across the universe to aid in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”

https://youtu.be/c80TzqNoqMg?si=eBE69X4gQ1UN9Rvu

NASA's Parker Solar Probe survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, the spacecraft hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved.Credits: NASA 

This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741.

Parker Solar Probe has spent the last six years setting up for this moment. Launched in 2018, the spacecraft used seven flybys of Venus to gravitationally direct it ever closer to the Sun. With its last Venus flyby on Nov. 6, 2024, the spacecraft reached its optimal orbit. This oval-shaped orbit brings the spacecraft an ideal distance from the Sun every three months — close enough to study our Sun’s mysterious processes but not too close to become overwhelmed by the Sun’s heat and damaging radiation. The spacecraft will remain in this orbit for the remainder of its primary mission.

“Parker Solar Probe is braving one of the most extreme environments in space and exceeding all expectations,” said Nour Rawafi, the project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which designed, built, and operates the spacecraft from its campus in Laurel, Maryland. “This mission is ushering a new golden era of space exploration, bringing us closer than ever to unlocking the Sun’s deepest and most enduring mysteries.”

Close to the Sun, the spacecraft relies on a carbon foam shield to protect it from the extreme heat in the upper solar atmosphere called the corona, which can exceed 1 million degrees Fahrenheit. The shield was designed to reach temperatures of 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt steel — while keeping the instruments behind it shaded at a comfortable room temperature. 

In the hot but low-density corona, the spacecraft’s shield is expected to warm to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

The spacecraft’s record close distance of 3.8 million miles may sound far, but on cosmic scales it’s incredibly close. If the solar system was scaled down with the distance between the Sun and Earth the length of a football field, Parker Solar Probe would be just four yards from the end zone — close enough to pass within the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun known as the corona.NASA/APL

“It’s monumental to be able to get a spacecraft this close to the Sun,” said John Wirzburger, the Parker Solar Probe mission systems engineer at APL. “This is a challenge the space science community has wanted to tackle since 1958 and had spent decades advancing the technology to make it possible.”

By flying through the solar corona, Parker Solar Probe can take measurements that help scientists better understand how the region gets so hot, trace the origin of the solar wind (a constant flow of material escaping the Sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to half the speed of light.

“The data is so important for the science community because it gives us another vantage point,” said Kelly Korreck, a program scientist at NASA Headquarters and heliophysicist who worked on one of the mission’s instruments. 

“By getting first hand accounts of what’s happening in the solar atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe has revolutionized our understanding of the Sun.”

Previous passes have already aided scientists’ understanding of the Sun. When the spacecraft first passed into the solar atmosphere in 2021, it found the outer boundary of the corona is wrinkled with spikes and valleys, contrary to what was expected. Parker Solar Probe also pinpointed the origin of important zig-zag-shaped structures in the solar wind, called switchbacks, at the visible surface of the Sun — the photosphere.

Since that initial pass into the Sun, the spacecraft has been spending more time in the corona, where most of the critical physical processes occur.

This conceptual image shows Parker Solar Probe about to enter the solar corona. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Smith

“We now understand the solar wind and its acceleration away from the Sun,” said Adam Szabo, the Parker Solar Probe mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This close approach will give us more data to understand how it’s accelerated closer in.”

Parker Solar Probe has also made discoveries across the inner solar system. Observations showed how giant solar explosions called coronal mass ejections vacuum up dust as they sweep across the solar system, and other observations revealed unexpected findings about solar energetic particles. Flybys of Venus have documented the planet’s natural radio emissions from its atmosphere, as well as the first complete image of its orbital dust ring.

So far, the spacecraft has only transmitted that it’s safe, but soon it will be in a location that will allow it to downlink the data it collected on this latest solar pass.

“The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, the director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It’s an amazing accomplishment.”

The spacecraft’s next planned close solar passes come on March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025.

《 By Mara Johnson-Groh NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 》

பாலைப் பிரசங்கம் - `` We must insist that all who committed war crimes must be held accountable.'`

Christ-less West vs. Christ-filled   Palestinian resilience

While glittering Christmas decorations adorn malls and mansions across the Western world, a stark contrast emerges in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. As babies are being massacred and frozen to death in nearby Gaza by those who have no regard for Christ’s message, the festive spirit commemorating the birth of the Prince of Peace feels sombre and desolate. 

 This grim reality serves as a poignant reminder of the spiritual disconnect between the Christ-less Christmas of Western ‘nominal’ Christianity and the suffering endured by those who live closest to the site of Christ’s birth. 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” So said Christ—Matthew 5:10—advocating justice and righteousness and giving hope to the marginalised and the oppressed that the suffering would be rewarded with a high place in the Kingdom of God. If only Jesus were to return today, on whose side would he be? Will he side with those who kill Palestinian babies by bombing them to smithereens and starving and freezing them to death by denying them access to food and warm clothes? Or will he go to the Gaza Strip and stop the carnage?

While Christ-filled Christianity will have no difficulty in answering this question and saying Jesus is against all forms of oppression, the Christ-less, Zionist-controlled Western Church may still justify Israel’s genocide even if its stance meant blasphemy or was against Christ’s teachings.

With Gaza’s historic churches being reduced to rubble, Christianity and its symbols are being wiped out from the holy land in preparation for Israel to take over the whole of Palestine. Israel’s strategy, it appears, is to de-Christianise the Holy Land before de-Islamising it. This strategy is being implemented with the full support of the Christ-less West, which is preoccupied with an Islamophobic civilisational clash fuelled by the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Zionist leadership. 

His Eminence Pierbattista Pizzaballa

 Palestine’s Christian population, which was ten percent when Israel was set up in 1947 through an anything-but-just United Nations resolution, is less than two percent today and shrinking. Yet, the Christ-less Western Church is little concerned about the vanishing flock.

Christ was and is a Palestinian. Period. Despite the conflicts of the Crusades between European kingdoms and Muslim caliphates from the 11th to 14th centuries, historical accounts suggest periods of relative coexistence among Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Palestine, Syria, and other parts of the Middle East. However, the peace was lost with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 by European Jews with doubtful Semitic origins and having a vision for an expansionist state in collusion with Western imperialism.

Regaining the lost peace of the Holy Land now appears to be entwined in the Christ-less church’s warped interpretation of the Second Coming of Jesus and in its moves to expedite the most awaited prophecy.

While the Zionist-friendly, Christ-less church let the Middle Eastern region bleed instead of making peace in keeping with Christ’s teaching and working for global justice, Jesus came alive in Bethlehem in the sermon delivered by Lutheran Priest, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac. A son of Palestine, he sees Jesus in Palestinians’ struggle for freedom and justice. 

His message in his Christmas sermon was as powerful as it was in his last Christmas message. Yes, Jesus is under the rubble this year too, he proclaimed, but the Christ-less West feigned deaf and blind to his message filled with the spirit of Jesus’ teachings. The Zionist-controlled Western media ignored or downplayed his message, whereas it should have topped the news bulletin if the Western media were true to their claim that their journalism was fact-based, agenda-free, and value-driven.

Delivering his Christmas message on December 21 at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church at a time when the Gaza war had seen nearly 45,000 Palestinian deaths, including those of some 17,000-20,000 children, Rev. Isaac’s criticism of the Western church was biting, if not despondent.

With a nearby billboard proclaiming “stop the genocide in Gaza”, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, delivers a speech in Bethlehem town in the Israel-occupied West Bank on December 24. AFP

Here is an excerpt from his spellbinding sermon:

“Last year I said silence is complicity. We are past that. Numbness is a betrayal of humanity. Yours and those in Gaza.”

“Equally, we must insist that all who committed war crimes must be held accountable. We cannot normalise impunity. What kind of a world and future are we leaving our children—if we accept a reality where war criminals go unpunished, even emboldened—where they openly boast of their crimes, and rather than met with justice, they are met with applause in the halls of Congress and defended by European parliaments? And they still dare to lecture us on human rights and international law.”

“Never again is only a slogan. Empty words. Never again should mean never again to all peoples. Never again has become yet again! Yet again to supremacy. Yet again to racism. Yet again for genocide.”

“And sadly, never again has become yet again for the weaponization of the Bible and the silence and complicity of the Western church—yet again for the church siding with power, with the Empire.”

A similar message resonated in Pope Francis’s statement on Saturday. Widely hailed for his reform-centred and social justice crusade, the Pope, in his forthright message, criticised Israel and described Israel’s killing of Palestinian children in Gaza as ‘cruelty’.

And when the Zionist state, which is no respecter of Christ’s message, reacted angrily, saying that the Pope’s remarks were disconnected from the truth, the Pope on Sunday doubled down on his remarks. “With pain, I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty,” the pope said after his weekly Angelus prayer.  Yet, while the Christ-filled churches cry for justice for Palestine and the return of peace in the Holy Land, the Christ-less West has become the war party and complicit in the genocide. Blind to the truth and the message of Christ, they fail to see that the suffering the Palestinians are going through is not defeat; it is victory; it is resilience, as Rev. Isaac highlighted in his sermon last week.

He said, “It has been 440 days of Palestinian resilience—sumud. Indeed, 76 years of sumud. But we have not and will not lose hope. Yes, it is 76 years of the ongoing Nakba, but it is also 76 years of Palestinian steadfastness, sumud, clinging to our rights and the justice of our cause: 76 years of praying and singing for peace. We are a stubborn people. We will continue echoing the words of the Angels: Glory to God in the Highest, Peace on Earth!”

“And today we say: Our faith in the God of truth and justice is our hope. Today we continue to cry out to Him because we believe that He hears us and because we believe in His justice and goodness. And because we believe in His solidarity with the oppressed!” “I know that the Lord maintains justice for the poor and righteousness for the needy.” (Psalm 140:12) ⍐

《 Daily Mirror LK, 27 December 2024 》