Farmers' Protest: Govt's 6th Round Of Talks With Farmer Leaders Hangs In Balance

New Delhi: The government's sixth round of talks with farmer unions scheduled for Wednesday hangs in balance after a meeting between Home Minister Amit Shah and a select group of peasant leaders failed to end the deadlock on Tuesday night, with the farmer representatives saying the government has refused to meet their demand for repeal of three new agri laws.

While there was no official words from the government on the status of Wednesday's scheduled meeting, many union leaders said there is no question of attending it and that they will take a call on their next course of action after studying the government's written proposal.

"Shah-ji said the government will give tomorrow in writing the amendments which the government is keen to (make). We will decide about attending the meeting after discussing the written amendments with all 40 farmer unions," All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah said after the meeting with the home minister.

Farmer leader Darshan Pal of AIKSCC, who also attended the meeting with Shah, said, "The central government will send us a note on our demands tomorrow.... There won't be any meeting between the Union government and farmer leaders tomorrow."

Three union ministers -- Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Som Parkash -- are representing the government in the talks with the 40 farmer unions' leaders.

The sixth round of meeting was scheduled a day after a 'Bharat Bandh' was observed by the protesting farmer unions, which received support from trade unions, various other organisations as well as 24 opposition parties, including the Congress and the NCP.

No breakthrough has been possible in the five rounds of talks so far as the protesting farmers have stuck to their demand for the repeal of the laws despite the government's assurance to look into specific issues without abolishing the legislations.

In the previous meeting on December 5, Tomar had assured 40 farmer union leaders that the government is open to considering ways to strengthen APMC mandis, create a level-playing field with proposed private markets, and provide a provision for approaching higher courts for dispute resolution, while asserting that procurement at minimum support price (MSP) will continue.

But the protesting farmer unions' leaders are insisting that the laws must be scrapped.

Meanwhile on December 7, a group of 20 progressive farmers from Haryana submitted to the government a memorandum demanding that the government consider amendments as suggested by the protesting farmers unions but not repeal them.

Tomar had told these progressive farmers backing these legislations that these measures will benefit the peasantry and the agriculture sector and that the government will handle such agitations.

The three farm laws have been presented by the government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and scrap the mandis, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

The Centre has maintained the MSP and mandi systems would continue and would be rather further improved and strengthened.

The first round of talks had taken place in October, but the farmer leaders had walked out from that meeting as no minister was present. This was followed by the second round on November 13. The last three rounds have taken place after thousands of farmers, first from Punjab and Haryana and later from other states as well, laid siege to various borders of the national capital.

(PTI)