Farmers Movement Archive

Shah meets 13 farmer leaders

Home Minister Amit Shah met 13 farmer leaders on Tuesday night, at the end of a day of nationwide protest and Bharat Bandh called by farmer organisations. By calling a select group, some divisions appear to have been created among the farmer groups. The meeting came on the eve of the scheduled sixth round of negotiations between Union Ministers and farmer groups. Those talks have been deadlocked over the farmers’ demand to repeal three contentious agricultural reform laws. So far, the official talks have taken place at Vigyan Bhavan, led by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on the government side. On the farmers’ side, the delegation includes representatives from all 32 of the Punjab unions, plus a few leaders from other regions and national outfits. The farmers’ alliance have rejected the government’s suggestion to form a smaller group to debate the details of the three laws. However, on Tuesday, Mr. Shah reached out to the farmers groups suggesting an “informal” or “unofficial” meeting with 13-14 representatives at his residence at 7 p.m., some leaders told The Hindu . The Punjab unions selected nine leaders, to be accompanied by Rakesh Tikait of a Bharatiya Kisan Union faction in Uttar Pradesh, Gurnam Singh Chaduni of another BKU faction in Haryana, Shiv Kumar Kakkaji of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh and Hannan Mollah of the All India Kisan Sabha. “It is an unofficial meeting. We understand that the Home Minister will give us the government’s proposal, as promised at the last meeting. We do not intend to have any discussions with Mr. Shah tonight. We will receive the proposal and come back to discuss with all the farmer groups,” said one of the leaders. At the last minute, the venue was shifted to the National Agricultural Science Complex, Pusa, and the meeting began after 8 p.m.. It was still going on at the time of going to print. Some leaders met Mr. Shah at his residence before the meeting began, sources said. Joginder Singh, president of BKU-Ugrahan, who was not included in the meeting, said the unions should not have gone to meet Mr. Shah separately as the move will create “misunderstanding among struggling people”. He said the BKU-U had been in the past approached twice for talks by the government separately, but it refused the offer. “We had always stuck to the demand that all organisations should be invited jointly,” he said.

The Hindu

2020-12-09

New Delhi