Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Union Interior Minister Amit Shah held discussions with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on Wednesday on ways to allay concerns about the new laws. agricultural. Tomar, Goyal and the Minister of State for Trade, Som Parkash, had represented the Union government on Tuesday during talks with farmer leaders, but made no progress.
As part of their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, farmers have been holding protests at four crowded border points in the national capital – Singhu, Noida, Ghazipur and Tikri – to press their demands under heavy police deployment. The leaders of around 35 farmers’ organizations held a meeting that was also attended by the leader of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, Rakesh Tikait, on the Singhu border.
“The Center should convene a special session of Parliament to repeal the new agricultural laws. We will continue our agitation until these laws are repealed,” Krantikari Kisan Union President Darshan Pal told reporters after the meeting. He accused the Center of dividing farmers’ organizations by projecting the ongoing protests as focused on Punjab.
Representatives of farmers’ organizations from other parts of the country will also participate under Kisan Samyukt Morcha to decide the future course of action against the new farm laws, he said. Pal said that representatives of farmers’ organizations will give their specific objections to the Union ministers at a meeting scheduled for Thursday.
Another farmer leader, Gurnam Singh Chadoni, said that if the Center does not withdraw the laws, further action will be taken in the coming days to pressure their demands. According to Tikait, all the farmers’ unions want the MSP to become a law and for the three central agricultural laws to be repealed. “The government had asked us to put in writing what the problems were with the laws. There would be room for a written statement if we had been seeking an amendment in the laws, but we only have one demand: to remove the laws completely,” he told PTI .
He also said that farmers have rejected the idea of a committee. “There are just too many committees in the country. There have been several committee reports in the past but they don’t result in anything. The committees are essentially created to prevent an uprising. I’ve been part of the farmers’ movement for almost 30 years, so I know. a lot, “Tikait said. “If the government does not make a decision in the next few days, we will increase the pressure on NH8 and NH2, we have been in talks with our brother farmers in Rajasthan,” he threatened. The day also saw Punjab’s chief minister Amarinder Singh and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal exchange positions with each other over the AAP government’s notification of one of the three central agricultural laws.
Kejriwal accused Singh of playing “dirty politics” and suggested that he was under pressure from central agencies. But Singh rejected Kejriwal’s claim that states are “defenseless” against the central legislation, saying it was clear that the AAP leader did not even want to try to fight the “draconian” laws. “Rather than just meekly notify the core laws, Kejriwal could have tried to make some effort to counter them and protect the rights of farmers,” said the Prime Minister of Punjab.
He argued that it is clear that “this crafty little one, whose double standards have been exposed time and again, is now completely cornered on the issue.” The protest on the Delhi-Noida (Chilla Boarder) route escalated, leading to the closure of the key route for the second day in a row, as more farmers from Firozabad, Meerut, Noida and Etawah began to gather there. Later, a car was opened for motorists.
More farmers from Firozabad, Meerut, Noida and Etawah began to gather. Bhim’s army chief Chandrashekhar Azad is likely to join farmers on Thursday at the Singh border, where thousands have been protesting for the past seven days. Azad had joined the protest taking place on the Ghazipur border near the UP Gate. Meanwhile, Kejriwal claimed that the Center was angry with him for not allowing the stadiums to be used as temporary prisons for farmers protesting against agricultural laws.
On Wednesday, around 2.00 farmers who have been camping near the Ghazipur border since Saturday refused to leave the site unless their demands were met. Farmers who are mainly from Uttar Pradesh have also been joined by groups from Uttarakhand.
A senior police officer said: “Farmers on the Ghazipur border want to move to Ram Leela Maidan or Jantar Mantar. Every day, they try to push through our barricades with their vehicles in an attempt to enter Delhi, but in any case not we will allow them in. However, the situation on the ground now remains peaceful. ” A protester camping on the Ghazipur border said farmers are here even though they face huge losses at home. “This is the time when we harvest sugar cane. But this is more important. We will continue to protest until the government agrees with our demands,” said Sonu, a member of the Muzaffarnagar Bharatiya Kisan Union.
More farmers also began to gather at the Singhu border, one of the main protest sites. According to the police, the control of vehicles has also been intensified at the border points as a precautionary measure in view of the protest march of the “Delhi Chalo” farmers.
“Cemented barriers and multi-layered barricades have been placed in addition to heavy security personnel at the Ghazipur border, near the UP gate, where many farmers have been protesting since Saturday,” said a senior police officer. Far from the comfort of their homes and unfazed by the winter chill, farmers camping at the Singhu border in Delhi against the Center’s farm reform laws say they are prepared for a long road and will not leave until they are enforced. your demands.
The farmers, who have come from the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana, start their day with a bath at the gas pumps, where they also wash their clothes. They return the favor by cleaning the gas pumps. Then they cook on the roadside. Anyone visiting the protest site is also offered a healthy meal including dal, rice, paranthas and kheer on different days. Agricultural leaders met with Union ministers on Tuesday, but the two sides failed to break the deadlock.
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