 Hello, you're watching Dispatches from India by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the major developments in the country, what Indians are talking about, and the impact it will have in the coming weeks and months. We begin with our News This Week section. In our first tour, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a Jaivar Airport project on November 25th. Jaivar is the district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is going into assembly elections in February 2022. In the first phase of land acquisition for the airport construction, the government acquired nearly 1,327 hectares of land, of which 1,240 hectares were acquired from eight villages in the district. It was reported that nearly 4,000 families were affected in the first phase, having been rendered homeless with no aid or assistance by the government. Recently, in the second phase of land acquisition for the project, 1,344 hectares was acquired from six villages. The land belonged to local farmers who were extremely unhappy with the development, as they say they have not been provided adequate accommodation or compensation. The per square meter rate for rural land is nearly twice that of what it is for urban land. Though Jaivar is classified as a rural area, farmers alleged that the government has termed it urban area on technical grounds and compensated them accordingly. Farmers have been protesting for many days, demanding fair compensation. Here is a ground report. Ajay and his brother Pramod had to leave his land. They are still fighting for it in the court. The government and the officials are aware that the way they have treated us, they have been threatened and insulted by us. In 18, 17, and 9, it is written that each person is insulted by the videographer. So, when the insult has not happened in the first phase, it has automatically ended. All the cases have ended. In fact, these people have lost their jobs. The people who have lost their jobs in the first phase have lost their jobs in the second phase. When our jobs are done here, we will not be able to move forward. We need all the facilities. First of all, we need the documents from these people. The government is deceiving everyone. There is no one to speak ill of anyone. Their work is done. Then they do not talk to anyone. This is the biggest problem that our government is facing. We are being told that something is going on and something is happening with us. And the biggest thing is that the land that is being taken from us, we will not be able to move forward. The entire village will not be able to move forward. We did not start the airport earlier. We are not doing it today. We want to become an airport. But the government has said in the beginning that it will be very difficult to become an airport. But now it seems that it can be difficult for the government to become an airport. But we are going to be disappointed. In the next story, security forces in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shot and killed three youth on the night of December 30th last year. The families of 17-year-old Atar, 24-year-old Ajaz and 22-year-old Zubair claimed that the boys had no connection whatsoever with militant groups and were falsely charged and killed. Massive protests began in the valley the next day with the demands that the security forces be held accountable, the boys be exonerated and the bodies be returned to their families. It has been one year since the incident but the families still wait for their children's bodies. Our reporter spoke with the father of one of the victims. Here's a ground report. What was your son like? How did he get interrogated and first killed in two hours? Then his dead body was thrown down from above. Ask us about this. I go there today on the cover that I have dug up with my own hands. I am waiting for my son. I will keep it open until I am alive. Either I will meet my son or my son's dead body. We now move to our in-focus section where we take a detailed look at some issues. Last week we had reported on a major controversy that broke out after a Hindu right-wing religious conclave was held from December 17th to 19th. The event took place in the city of Haridwar in the state of Uttarakhand. At this event, speaker after speaker spewed venom against minorities, especially Muslims. There were even calls for genocide. The police filed a first information report after the incident but so far no one has been arrested. Meanwhile, some of the participants went to the police to file a complaint against Muslim clerics and they alleged that they have been conspiring against Hindus and so should be punished. After the conclave, the Communist Party of India Marxist has said that the speeches were akin to supporting terrorist acts. It called for the immediate arrest of those responsible for the promotion of not just hate speech but also incitement to violence. We spoke with Communist Party of India Marxist Politburo member Subhashni Ali on the issue. This is what she has to say. It is extremely disturbing and horrifying videos that have become very viral after that so-called dharma censor. Actually it was an adharma censor. But at some other time or some other point in our history, they could have been just dismissed as ravings of lunatics and madmen not worth paying attention to. But because they are happening in a particular context where the government follows a certain ideology, the government is directed by the RSS which follows a certain ideology, which has been talking about the establishment of a Hindu Raj which preaches against hatred of minorities. And it has also happened at a time when there have been increasing numbers of attacks on minorities, both Muslims and Christians. It is at this particular time that this becomes so dangerous and something that needs intervention, that needs action. All the laws do not permit this kind of hate speech. The constitution doesn't permit this kind of call to genocide. I would also like to say that inciting children to violence. This is not about teaching children self-defense or asking them to learn to protect themselves. This is inciting children to violence and violence against people whom they don't know who have not harmed them, who are to be attacked only because they belong to a particular religious group. This is just atrocious. All over the world we are seeing what this kind of training in violent acts does. You have people who have easy access to guns, committing crimes that are just spiralling all over the world. Similarly in our country where we do have very strict gun laws, where people are not supposed to be using and brandishing weapons, this kind of incitement to violence in children, telling them that attacking people who belong to another religion is something good, something heroic and something that should do, is just absolutely atrocious. It cannot be acceptable. It has to be stopped. And those perpetrating this kind of violence must be punished with the full might of the law. And finally India has seen a tumultuous 2021. On the one hand the farmers agitation had a dramatic impact on the country. The victory of the farmers in their struggle against three controversial laws will have a massive impact in the years to come. On the other hand many observers have pointed out that there is a major decline in the democratic space in the country, with critics of the government being hounded or even jailed. The country also saw a horrific wave of the pandemic in April. Pranjil from Newsclick analyzes the year that was for India. Year 2021 has been a year of ups and downs vis-a-vis Indian subcontinent. The country saw massive farmers agitation, but we also witnessed thousands of people dying because of COVID. The economy is in crisis and the democratic spaces are shrinking day by day. There have been a lot of attacks which have taken place on media houses. They have been raided continuously, one being Danik Bhaskar which is one of the biggest Hindi media organizations of the country. Then we also saw massive crackdown on students' protests and continuously bills being bulldozed by the parliament without any discussion. The situation has come to such that even 11 member of the parliaments were suspended for raising people's issues in the parliament. And the government has remained silent on all of these and in most of these cases they have given tacit support to such moves. Economy has seen a lot of crisis. There has been joblessnessness. The unemployment has increased many fold and the no creation of jobs is taking place. One must remember when the Modi government came to power, they had promised 20 million new jobs, but they have completely failed to deliver any of these. And especially because of the COVID lockdowns, unplanned COVID lockdowns. The government comes, prime minister comes on the TV screens, announces lockdown all of sudden and people have to migrate from cities to their rural areas. The industries have remained shut and people have not got any work to do. Even when we see one of the major schemes which provides rural employment, the funding in those schemes have also been cut down. And as a result, there are also no jobs in the government schemes. The youth is unemployed, the workers are unemployed and the economy, the prices of commodities are going up day by day. Even petrol and diesel are being sold at 100 rupees per litre. And the government has not done anything to curb either the inflation or unemployment or has continuously taken space to make sure that the voices of dissent are crushed on day to day basis. Apart from that, the country also witnessed massive COVID surge in form of second wave and also parallely the massive COVID mismanagement. People could be found posting SOS messages on Twitter, SOS messages on telegram groups, asking for oxygen cylinders and hospital beds. One can't forget the visuals of dead bodies being buried on river banks uncovered and which were witnessed found later. So the government has basically failed on all these fronts, especially when it comes to controlling COVID. But all has not been low in this year. The country has also witnessed massive resistance in form of farmer's irritation. The farmer's irritation which began in year 2020 had gained pace by 2021. Thousands of farmers had gathered on Delhi borders asking for repeal of three farm laws, repeal of electricity amendment bill and a minimum support price should be guaranteed. In the end, the government had to give up on these demands and they had to take back these three laws. This farmer's irritation also witnessed massive, massive support from all sections of the society. The trade unions, the women organizations, the student organizations and seven society groups came together and stood in solidarity with the farmers' irritation. Not just that, the workers' organizations trade unions have been continuously on the streets opposing the four labor codes which are anti-worker. Then the students have been fighting against new education policy and a lot of such things have been happening. We have seen massive resistance of defence employees who are talking against the privatization. The bank employees who are talking against the privatization and hopefully in year 2022 these struggles are going to be intensified day by day and these battles will be won. That's all we have time for today. We will be back next year with more news from India. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch.