Farmers Movement Archive

Have offered best deal possible: Government tells farmer unions

NEW DELHI/BHATINDA: The stalemate between the Centre and the farm unions opposed to the new agri laws deepened on Friday after the government said the offer to suspend the legislations for up to one and a half years was the best deal possible and its rejection indicated that certain forces did not want a solution. The 11th round of discussions between the Centre and the unions ran aground with agriculture minister Narendra Tomar recounting several suggestions relating to amendments to the laws offered by the Centre and noting that the unions had remained frozen in demanding repeal of the legislations without agreeing to a clause by clause discussion on the reforms. After the meeting ended without the next date being fixed, Tomar said it appeared there were certain forces which did not actually want a solution and were rather trying to serve their own political interests using the farmers. Such forces had nothing to do with farm interests as they simply wanted the protests to continue to serve their own interests, he added. The unions reiterated their plans to further intensify the agitation and continue with preparations to hold a tractor march on Outer Ring Road in Delhi on Republic Day. They will have another meeting with police officials on Saturday to discuss their January 26 plan. Before winding up the meeting on Friday, Tomar urged farm leaders to "reconsider the government's proposal", saying further progress could yet be made. Asked if he was hopeful, he replied with a laconic comment, “The sky rests on hope.” Unlike the previous five meetings, talks on Friday concluded without fixing a fresh date — a clear indication of a deadlock with the unions adopting a rigid repeal-or-nothing stand. After the meeting, farm leader Jagdeep Dallewal said, “At the start of the meeting, Tomar raised the issue of farm groups revealing their response to the Centre’s proposal in the media before informing the ministers. We said the media was outside the meeting and when they posed some questions, we shared the outcome of the meeting in which we rejected the proposal.” Dallewal, Buta Singh Burjgill, Jagmohan Singh and Rajinder Singh Deep Singh Wala told TOI that Tomar then displayed the press release issued on Thursday evening. The ministers were annoyed that we had rejected their proposal in the media, they said. The unions also raised the issue of police “misbehaviour” with senior farm leader Ruldu Singh Mansa while entering Vigyan Bhawan on Friday when the rear window of his car was broken. They also raised concern over objectionable language used with senior leader Darshan Pal and an alleged threat to farm leader Rakesh Tikait in a tweet. It is clear from Tomar’s stand that the government will now move forward only when the unions accept the Centre's proposal or agree to discuss it. The government on Wednesday had offered to put implementation of the laws on hold for up to 18 months and form a joint committee to look at all demands of farmers to arrive at a solution through discussions. Read AlsoProtesting farmer leaders allege conspiracy to kill 4 of them, disrupt tractor rallyProtesting farmer leaders have alleged that a conspiracy has been hatched to kill four of them and create disturbance during their proposed tractor rally in Delhi on January 26.The government even offered to submit the proposal to the Supreme Court through an affidavit. The unions, however, rejected this proposal on Thursday, saying they didn’t want to compromise with their core demands, including repeal of laws and legal guarantee to MSP. Tomar made his displeasure known to the unions the moment the meeting started on Friday and said the government had already offered them the best option. Though the farm representatives and officials remained in the meeting hall at Vigyan Bhawan for nearly five hours, the actual talks were held for only around 30 minutes when both sides simply reiterated their respective stands. Ministers, including Tomar and Piyush Goyal, even stayed outside the main meeting hall for quite some time after clearing the government’s stand while agriculture secretary Sanjay Agrawal sought to engage with the union leaders.

The Times of India

2021-01-23

India