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"Dutch Police fire on farmers during escalating food protest, Canada cracked down its truckers too, Human Rights looking other way": Dutch farmers angry at govt plans to slash emissions, blocked roads for several days, sparking fears of food shortages

The reforms are expected to include reducing livestock and buying up some farms whose animals produce large amounts of ammonia. Farmers argue they are being unfairly targeted and are being given no perspective for their future
 |  Satyaagrah  |  Global
Netherlands Police cracks down on farmers protest, just like Canada did with truckers – where are human rights groups?
Netherlands Police cracks down on farmers protest, just like Canada did with truckers – where are human rights groups?

As soon as any protest occurs in Bharat, human rights groups get activated, demanding ‘accountability’ from the government. The same groups conveniently look the other way in the West. The recent police crackdown on farmer protests in the Netherlands is a case in point.

According to an ABC News report:

Dutch police shot at a tractor during a wild night of farm protests and detained three demonstrators, the latest incident in a string of protests against government plans to cut pollutant emissions that many farmers fear would hurt their livelihoods.

Police in northern Friesland said Wednesday that no one was hurt in the incident that involved warning shots and direct targeting of a tractor that broke free from a line. Police said there was an attempt to drive into their vehicles and officers.

Because shots were fired, an official investigation into the incident was started.

Dutch farmers angry at government plans to slash emissions have blocked roads and supermarket distribution centers for several days, sparking fears of food shortages.

The unrest among Dutch farmers was triggered by a government proposal to slash emissions of pollutants like nitrogen oxide and ammonia by 50% by 2030. Provincial governments have been given a year to formulate plans to achieve the goal.

The reforms are expected to include reducing livestock and buying up some farms whose animals produce large amounts of ammonia. Farmers argue they are unfairly targeted and given no perspective for their future.

A similar situation was witnessed in Canada when the Trudeau government declared an emergency to quell truckers’ protests. In late January this year, thousands of Canadian truckers and their supporters descended on Canada’s capital Ottawa to oppose the government’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement for truckers crossing the border into the US, which has the same policy. On February 6, Ontario province, where Ottawa is located, declared a state of emergency to quell the convoy protests.

Netherlands Police cracks down on farmers protest, just like Canada did with truckers – where are human rights groups?

Despite no violence during the protests, Canadian cops abused ordinary citizens by issuing hundreds of tickets and arresting people, including the elderly. The city also threatened to arrest anyone who brought gas to the protestors, but hundreds of Ottawans defied those orders. When compared to the so-called farmer's protest, which crippled Bharat’s capital for a year and involved multiple incidents of violence, none worse than the anarchy unleashed by tractor-riding lumpens who stormed Delhi’s Red Fort on Bharat’s Republic Day (January 26, 2021) and left around 400 police personnel injured, the Ottawa protests were peaceful.

Another key difference is that the Ottawa protests seem genuine and organic, and the people involved are ordinary folks from all walks of life. The agitations in Bharat were staged, and as some rational voices in the West also acknowledged, the protests represented the interests of politically powerful (and heavily subsidized) remnants of Bharat’s traditional landlord communities.

Many Western countries and human rights activists have repeatedly been targeting Bharat. They have unnecessarily interfered in Bharat’s internal affairs, the CAA, or the farm laws. Several Western nations, including Australia, France, and Belgium, have witnessed large-scale Covid-related agitations. Even the UK saw a police crackdown on agitators protesting the rape and murder of a woman by a police constable.

These Western nations have enough dirt in their backyard to clean, but these nations don’t think twice before ignorantly and arrogantly commenting on actions taken by the ‘developing’ world. Human rights and other otherwise dormant and conveniently silent activists activate their international toolkits as soon as there are protests in Bharat.

(Featured Image Source: ABC News)

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