Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers continue protest as no deal reached in talks with govt.

Talks between the Centre and the farmers demanding a rollback of the three recent farm sector legislation ended inconclusively on Tuesday. The farmers’ unions rejected the government’s proposal to set up a small expert committee to examine the three controversial laws. The lines of communication between the protesters and the government stayed open, however, with both sides agreeing to meet again at noon on Thursday. The farmer leaders were asked to submit a detailed critique with their specific objections to the new laws by Wednesday. The impasse on the ground continued, with several thousand farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, camped out on the borders of Delhi, blocking two entrances to the capital for the sixth straight day. “We wanted the government to suspend the three laws while the negotiations are held, but they said that would not be possible. They asked us to stop the agitation, but our protest will continue. It will be intensified until our demand for repeal of the three laws is met,” said Darshan Pal, president of the Kisan Krantikari Union, one of the Punjab farmer leaders present during the meeting. “They wanted to set up a committee but similar panels have not led to any outcome in the past,” he added. Apart from the 30-plus Punjab unions that have already had two rounds of failed talks with the Centre on this issue, the farmers delegation included Gurnam Singh Chadhuni of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in Haryana, Shivkumar Kakkaji Sharma of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh (RKM), and Hannan Mollah of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), in a nod to the growing national nature of the protest. Despite widespread expectation that the government delegation would be led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the team of Central Ministers was unchanged from the last round of talks in November.

The Hindu

2020-12-02

NEW DELHI