EDITORIAL 02:- Food for peace: On 2020 Peace Nobel:- This year’s prize has been awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP), of the UN system, for its contribution to combating hunger in conflict and disaster-struck sites. The Norwegian Nobel Committee took note of the WFP’s life-saving role in the year of the pandemic, staving off catastrophes of hunger in Yemen, Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burkina Faso. The Prize is a fitting tribute to the aid workers who brave hazardous conditions to reach starving people in theatres of war, civil strife and natural disasters, moving food on aircraft, trucks and even all-terrain amphibious vehicles.

The decision to honour the WFP echoes the advice of another peace laureate from 1949, Lord John Boyd Orr, the first head of the FAO, that peace cannot be built on empty stomachs. 

SDG-2:– The recognition that the WFP has received can help the humanitarian organisation prepare for a decade of ambition and help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Of central importance is SDG 2 — achieving zero hunger by 2030 — a target that requires determination to resolve festering armed conflict, and more fundamentally, to mitigate carbon emissions early and avert effects on agriculture from disastrous climate events. 

EDITORIAL 03:- Bijolia Movement Rajasthan :- Bijolia, along the National Highway 27 in Bhilwara district and almost 50 km from Kota, was part of Mewar prior to Independence.

During the freedom struggle, the peasant movement in the town narrated a tale of the power of the common man. The movement started in 1897, led by Sadhu Sitaram.

Krishna Singh was the chieftain of Bijolia and Maharana Fateh Singh the ruler of Mewar.

Krishna Singh imposed many taxes on the farmers, even one on the marriage of their daughters. With the imposts hurting their finances, the common men tried to raise their voice in the royal court of Mewar. But it went in vain.

Krishna Singh died in 1906, and his successor, Prithvi Singh, exceeded him in imposing taxing levies. It gave a new momentum to the agitation.

To exhibit their wrath, farmers put off the marriages of their daughters. Vijay Singh Pathik, a legendary freedom fighter, joined the movement in 1916 and started leading it. He wrote several articles in the famous newsletter Pratap at that time. British authorities were compelled to form an enquiry commission headed by Justice Bindu Lal Bhattacharya.

84 taxes:- Farmers were paying 84 different types of taxes at that time. Several British officials tried to solve the issue, but to no avail. When Pathik was forbidden from entering the area, leaders like Seth Jamuna Lal, Haribhau Upadhyaya and Manik Lal Verma took over the mantle.