Farmers Movement Archive

Yadav’s exclusion from talks team hints at cracks

Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav was not included in the farmers’ delegation for talks with the Centre on Tuesday, allegedly because the government did not want any political personalities to be included. However, some farmer leaders said his exclusion was actually at the behest of some Punjab unions. Late on Monday night, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had issued an invitation for a meeting at Vigyan Bhavan at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, saying that those organisations which had been invited to the earlier talks on November 13 would be invited this time also. Only the Punjab unions had been invited last month. In fact, only Punjab leaders had been getting calls from senior bureaucrats and BJP politicians over the past few days as unofficial negotiations have been taking place by phone. However, on Tuesday, Punjab farmer unions decided to demand that the all-India leadership of the protest, under the banner of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, also be included in the talks. The Morcha’s coordination committee is a seven-member body, which includes three Punjab leaders and Mr. Yadav, as well as Gurnam Singh Chadhuni of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Shivkumar Kakkaji Sharma of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, and Hannan Mollah of the All India Kisan Sabha. “Amit Shah himself spoke to the Punjab leaders and said Yogendra Yadav could not be included as he heads a political party,” Mr. Yadav told The Hindu . According to Mr. Yadav, the Punjab leaders were ready to boycott the talks on the grounds of his exclusion, but he told them he was willing to step aside. However, among some other farmers groups, several leaders cited Mr. Yadav’s role in initially urging that the protesters shift from the border to the Burari grounds as a source of annoyance. They said there was also resentment about the fact that Mr. Yadav and several other national leaders have a high-profile media presence despite the fact that they have mobilised only a small fraction of protesters. So far, the Centre has insisted on negotiating only with Punjab unions, portraying the protests as motivated by political interests only from that State. Tuesday’s talks were the first round of the dialogue with representatives from other States as well.

The Hindu

2020-12-02

NEW DELHI