 The results of two by-elections in the United Kingdom indicate the extent of the challenge before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the ruling Conservative Party. Now the Conservative lost the elections in the constituencies of Kingswood and Wellingbro by substantial margins to Labour Party and this gives a sense of the kind of headwinds that the Conservative Party will face. It's deeply unpopular. Many of its policies are hated by the people and the country's economy has slipped into a recession. Now the Labour Party does seem to have a lot of advantages but it also has failed to present a very serious or substantial alternative policy agenda. To understand the politics of the United Kingdom at this point and what lies ahead in the elections, we go to Anish. Anish, thank you so much for joining us. Let's take a look at these by-election results quite a severe blow to the Conservative Party months ahead of the election. First take us to what these constituencies were, you know, what was the situation and what is the kind of outcome that happened. Yes Prashant, the results are quite significant in multiple ways. One is definitely the fact that both the seats that went into the by-elections were Conservative strongholds. They have been held by the Conservative Party for years together. For instance Wellingbro was held since 2005, so nearly 20 years of Conservative representation from that constituency has been brought to an end. And Kingswood, another Conservative stronghold, has been held by the Party since 2010. So nearly one and a half decade of Conservative hold on the constituency came down. And this is also nothing new at this point in time. There have been 11 by-elections that have happened since the Rishi Sumit government has come into place and in the 11, the Conservatives have only one, a single seat, which is Utsbridge and Utsbridge and Southwester. Now, in that case, the result was actually an upset and the Conservative candidate who won Steve Tuckworth won by a very small and reduced margin of something around 500 votes. So it's quite a significant event and it's a consistent trend that has been going on for the past year or so against how the wave, there's a wave of anti-incondition that has been quite consistently going on under the Sumit government and there has been no let-off on this matter. Many multiple seats have been flipped mostly by the Labour Party, clearly showing that the Labour Party is currently holding momentum privately because it is taking advantage of the anti-incondition against the government because the Conservatives have really failed to take care of several daily bread and butter ratios for the British people at this point in time. The cost of living crisis is still there even though there has been a let-off over the past couple of months. It is still, the after-effects are still quite prevalent and on top of that, the government has been pushing for several anti-democratic moves, trying to, you know, lock or ban protest strikes, strike the trade union strikes or any kind of workers' mobilisation. Very recently there has been an attempt to target Palestinian protesters and all of this has definitely clearly shows that there has been an impact that is only chipping away at the Conservative base at this point at the advantage of opposition groups, whoever is the strongest and in this case, the Labour Party being the more organised with the national profile among all the opposition parties is definitely gaining from these, from Conservative weakness. Right Anish, like we said, few months left for the elections and already there's multiple reports stating that Labour definitely has an advantage. So what are the situations as far, what is the situation as far as both the parties are concerned based on various polls, based on various estimates, what does this political situation look like now? Yes, so as I said, like there is a general trend of anti-democracy and the Conservatives have not been able to plug that kind of bleeding of the votes that has been seen over the past couple of years now actually and it's not just a Sunni government hallmark, it has been happening under the previous and since at least for results of government where Conservatives have been losing quite a few of their very significant seats. But you know, since most of the by-elections have happened very recently and in most cases pretty much all of the cases that has happened under the Sunni government, it has happened primarily because of one of the other Conservative Party leaders being held up in some kind of scandal. So and there has been no, you know, no success by the Tories to actually regain people's confidence, even bringing back some of the, even the older leaders like David Cameron is brought back as one of the significant members of the cabinet and even that hasn't actually favored the Conservatives at this point in time. So it clearly shows that there has been, this is nearly 14 years of Conservative rule has really not made, you know, an impact that is the legacy is now for all to see. The post-COVID United Kingdom is really seeing the after effects of even Conservative, more than a decade of Conservative rule and how that has actually impacted the economy. The post-Brexit process, the COVID-19 mismanagement that only exacerbated the cost of living crisis in the post-COVID-19 era, all of this has come to really bite back the Conservatives. On the other hand, the Labour Party is making gains, but this is only kind of emboldening the current establishment Tory-like Labour leadership right now and that is another part of the concern because in many cases their policies or the policies that they're trying to push for pretty much are not that, you know, in opposition with the Conservative agenda, at least in the economic front. So in many of these cases, the fact that there has been very little difference between the Labour and the Conservatives is also a matter of concern for many of the progressives in the UK who see that like growing Labour victories only emboldened the Tory-like version of the Labour Party rather than the more progressive ones who are actually doing much of the work at the grassroots right now. Thank you so much, Anish. But do stay back. We'll come back to you for the next story as well. On February 16th, that is Friday, tens of thousands of people across India observed what is called the Grameen Band or the Rural Shutdown. Now, this was mainly done by farmers organizations, by workers organizations which have been collaborating, working together and of course this is connected to the historic farmers' protests from two years ago. Meanwhile, farmers have also been protesting on the borders of the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, a large number of farmers gathered there. All these demands by these protesting farmers and workers are very similar. A lot has to do with what is called the minimum support price or the MSP which is also one of the key demands of the protest two years ago but has not been fulfilled. To understand what these protests are, what are the demands, we go back to Anish. Welcome back, Anish. The farmers' agitation right now, both the rural shutdown that took place yesterday and the ongoing protest on the borders of the states of Punjab and Haryana, clear echoes of what happened two years ago and many of the demands are quite similar too. So maybe could you take us through what these demands are, why are the farmers at this point just months before the election staging these protests? Yes, Prashant. So let's begin with some of the main demands that farmers are calling for in the current round of negotiations as well. Obviously at the top of it is the minimum support price for farm produce. A minimum support price is basically an assured, legally assured pricing system that would ensure that farmers make a profit or at least recover the cost and make some surplus out of their produce which could actually help them in continuing the production process itself. One of the reasons why there is a massive farming distress, rural distress across India is primarily because farmers often do not get to recover the cost of their produce and especially if they are engaged in producing or farming essential commodities, food grains and who are not in the cash crop industry. The other ones who are far worse off, it's not like the cash crop industry is better or are doing far better. They are also facing losses very routinely but it's the food grains and the farmers who are engaged in the production of food grains are the ones who are the far worst affected at this point in time and this also multiplies to food crisis, farming crisis and agricultural crisis. That is something that is widespread at this current point in time across India. On top of that they are calling for loan waivers from banks and the NBFCs sorry NBFCs are non banking finance corporations or companies. They are also farmers are calling for loan waivers. Now loan and debt crisis across the farming sector especially for small farmers is something that has led to debt of nearly 200,000 farmers across India as for certain estimates. So this is a massive crisis that has been going on since the mid 90s and it has remained under debt and loan waivers are one of the ways that farmers are saying would actually support them and help them regain their production capability. In many cases very often farmers need suicide because foreclosures are being imposed on them on their lads which pretty much renders them without a livelihood and their families without a livelihood. So suicides that you know really seen as this is the kind of tragedy that is widespread across India in most places and especially in north of India where there is an intensively massive farming distress that is also that also remains unaddressed. Another part of this is the off the demands is the crapping of the Electricity Amendment Act. The Electricity Amendment Act is pretty much does one of the ways it impacts farmers is basically it takes out subsidized electricity consumption which is kind of important for farmers to you know offset some of the costs of electricity usage for their farm process. Bringing it out would actually increase their cost. Again just only multiplying the already widespread distress and obviously the last one the suspension of Ajay Mishra, the minister of the Bhakti Jattavati the ruling BJP of Prime Minister Larry Brahmode. He was implicated in protecting his son Ashish Mishra who is one suspect of the Lakhimpur Kheri killings in which he is said to have driven the car that killed about four farmers and a journalist and you know offset a violent struggle between farmers and police at the time. It pretty much was one of the most gruesome incidents throughout the farm and the farmer's protest that actually that India witnessed a couple of years ago and this is something that farmers have been demanding for a very long time. Ashish Mishra and continues to evade prosecution by much of it he in fact went into hiding at the time. There are multiple witnesses who saw him driving the car and running away from the scene. Ajay Mishra have continued to protect him and is still one of the senior most leaders and in the BJP who continues to retain his position. So these are some of the main demands that farmers have put forward in their current set of protests in the national capital Delhi. Right Anish and also could you give us a sense of the scale of the protest what has been happening on the ground as part of these protests. The situation on the ground is quite dramatic right now. Pretty much the government of Haryana which is the neighboring state to Delhi the national capital is trying to block roads highways with you know significant level of blocks and blockades pretty much blockading the entire capital blocking off all major roads that lead to the capital. You know some of the busiest highways in fact and this is something that that they're they're going to continue indefinitely as farmers decide to go on with the struggle. There is also you know attempts by the government to you know suppress the protest in many ways. There are currently negotiations ongoing but no results are yet to arrive. On top of that recently one of the things that we had across India was the drumming or the rural strike that happened across India in which an estimated 200 million people have participated. In that you had trade unions, farmers movements across the country participating in strike across different sectors as well and in response to that very recently we have seen the government of the British the largest the most popular state in the country which is led by BJP obviously impose a six month ban on strikes for public servants pretty much because several public servants were part of the rural strike that actually took place yesterday. So in all in all we are seeing farmers continuing with the demands standing their ground. On the other hand we see significant repression from the government using all sorts of state machinery to make sure that they get scuttled they can to make sure that farmers do not reach Delhi the way they did a couple of years ago and you know at a time because it's quite close to the general elections that are set to happen between April and May and so they really do not want any kind of they do not want the optics of being seen as anti-farmers in a country where most of the world you know in a country that is mostly reliant on agriculture to sustain itself. So this is definitely a situation that the government is trying to diffuse or if not they will diffuse and trying to suppress it but in both cases the results are not in favor of the government right now while farmers continue to dug their heels dig their heels into their demands and stand their ground on the move right now. Thank you one second Anish we'll come back to you next week with more segments for Daily Debrief and that's all we have in today's episode we'll be back with a fresh Daily Debrief next week in the meanwhile do visit our website people's dispatch.org follow us on all the social media platforms and if you're watching this on YouTube please hit that subscribe button.