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Declaration on Seeds and Farmers’ Rights, 2023

Bharat BEEJ Swaraj Manch (India Seed Sovereignty Alliance) We reject attempts to privatize/usurp India’s genetic commons. the State must safeguard the natural rights of farming and indigenous communities. We urge the State to resist as bio-piracy   Digital Sequence Information (DSI) is being used by corporations for selective manipulation to claim patents. We reject the narrow definition of “access and benefit” as a monetization tool to gain exclusive intellectual property rights over plant varieties. For the full text of the declaration

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Women's Reservation Bill: Yet Another Smoke and Mirrors Trick with Godi Media in tow https://youtu.be/CwiVgBTiwac

<https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/modi-govt-clears-womens-quota-bill-27-years-after-it-was-first-introduced/articleshow/103767705.cms>.

Women's Reservation Bill: Yet Another Smoke and Mirrors Trick with Godi Media in tow Courtesay S Sen in  Whats app

I. The devil is in the details: "(T)he proposed reservation could come into force by 2029 after the constituencies are redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise based on the decennial census expected to get under way in 2026."
Hence, as per the "leak", there'd be no move towards immediate implementation.
Not only that, the implementation would be contingent upon taking up and completion of the next decennial census -- now inexplicably held up by the regime -- to be followed up by delimitation of constituencies.
Two big, completely unnecessary, "Ifs"!

II. A bill once introduced in the Rajya Sabha never dies -- because the upper house never dies -- unless superseded or rejected by the lower house.
Hence, the bill introduced by the UPA Government in the Rajya Sabha and approved by it in March 2010 is still very much alive.
The narrative of "lapse" presented below is plain false.

III. The Congress in its just concluded CWC meet -- Sept. 16-17 in Hyderabad -- has categorically demanded the passing of the pending bill in the Lok Sabha during this "Special Session". (Ref.: <https://twitter.com/Jairam_Ramesh/status/1703279060435263616> and also <https://twitter.com/Jairam_Ramesh/status/1703808646558421128>.)
In the report below, this has been completely suppressed and, in fact, implicitly denied.

IV. The real purpose, as it appears, is not to implement women's quota in state and central legislatures -- as has already been done in case of urban and rural local elected bodies -- but to try to disrupt the Opposition INDIA alliance, given the known differences. Hence, no attempt at arriving at a consensus via prior consultations.

It's now for the (other) INDIA alliance partners to respond with due sagacity.

<<The government refused to confirm the decision, but sources said that the proposed reservation could come into force by 2029 after the constituencies are redrawn as part of the delimitation exercise based on the decennial census expected to get under way in 2026.

The bill was first introduced in 1996, and even cleared by the Rajya Sabha in March 2010, but lapsed after the Lok Sabha failed to pass it.

Sources in the government were confident of the prospects of the bill in Parliament this time as well as of enlisting the necessary support from states. They said Congress would have to come along and pointed to states which are with BJP, its allies as well as parties which though not part of the NDA have been in support of the measure.>>

Peoples Manisfesto points..

Uma As a farmer, I would like that the people working in natural resources sector - forest people, farmers, mining workers - should get their due, a fair deal in the national cake.