Farmers Movement Archive

Sikh religious leader meets Tomar, unions on talks eve

NEW DELHI: A meeting between Baba Lakkhawal of Nanaksar Gurudwara with agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday set off speculation of the Sikh religious leader being an intermediary to convey certain proposals or attempt to narrow the trust gap between farm unions opposed to the new farm laws and the Centre. However, farm representatives said there was no such formal communication. It is understood the Baba interacted with some union members, a day ahead of the next round of discussions between the Centre and farm unions. Simultaneously, there was some discussion on “alternatives” in the agriculture ministry, which was seen as loud thinking rather than a concrete proposal. Since the government is not willing to repeal the laws and the unions are insisting on such a course of action, it was felt that keeping the laws in abeyance for now or leaving it to individual states to enforce it might be options. However, as things stand, it is unclear if the unions, or even the government, will be ready to find not implementing the laws acceptable. And states can bring in certain laws, as Congress-ruled ones have done, to "negate" the central legislations. The proposal on leaving it to states to implement laws was shared with few leaders of farm unions after Baba Lakkawal met Tomar. Farm leaders, however, said they did not get any ‘formal’ proposal in writing even as few people at different protest sites discussed it as something which came from followers of Baba Lakkhawal. “We have not received any such proposal. I think it’s an attempt from the Centre to divert media attention (by initiating such discourse) from successful tractor march around Delhi. It’s also a move to divide farmers by projecting it as a state-specific (Punjab-Haryana) problem. Our demand is repeal of laws,” said Yogendra Yadav of Jai Kisan Andolan. Sources said that since the government won’t repeal the laws, both sides need time to discuss finer points of reforms, including the issue of minimum support price (MSP), after suspending the farm agitation. “As representatives of central government had sought to confirm repeatedly in the last meeting about our demand of repealing of three farm laws, we are again reminding the government ahead of tomorrow's (Friday) meeting that these laws should be completely repealed and remunerative MSP should be made into a legal right of all farmers,” said unions’ umbrella body, AIKSCC, in a statement. It said, “We will never accept the amendments offered by the government. We will continue to intensify the protests for fulfilling our demands.” Referring to some discourse around the proposal where the Centre’s won’t push enforcement of laws and rather leave it to states to enforce it, Avik Saha, general secretary of AIKSCC, said, “If states are given power to enforce or not to enforce these laws, the entire narrative (unified market where farmers will have freedom to sell) on which these three laws have been created will collapse.” He said, “I don’t know how farm unions will counter it. But if the central government comes up with this proposal, we will be even more sure the government with this is certainly not batting for the farmers but for large corporations.”

The Times of India

2021-01-08

India