Updated: December 10, 2020 7:47:14 am
The leaders of the farmers’ unions arrive at Vigyan Bhavan for the fifth round of talks with the government, in New Delhi, on December 5, 2020 (Express photo: Amit Mehra).
On October 13, the number one point of the memorandum issued by the protesting farmers was the demand for the repeal of the three central agricultural laws It happened at a controversial Rajya Sabha session on September 20.
Today, December 9, after six rounds of talks, which involved more than 20 hours of deliberations, protests in the streets of Punjab, Haryana and the capital, the peasant leaders returned to underlining the same article.
This lack of movement has hardened the divide and poses the main challenge as both sides work on their next steps.
Government officials claimed that they had “given in” and given “guarantees” based on exactly what farmers had asked for during the talks in Vigyan Bhavan.
“They asked for guarantees about the MSP and the fiscal parity and the judicial process. If repeal was the only demand, then what was there to discuss in six rounds? said a senior government official. “We have given the guarantees that the farmers asked for.”
Not quite, farmers say.
In fact, they emphasize that the demand for repeal has been constant along with the MSP in law and it is the government that has been making mistakes.📣 Follow Express explained on Telegram
In the first round of talks with the Center between 29 representatives of Punjab agricultural unions and the Union Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal on October 14 in Krishi Bhawan, peasant leaders had made a series of demands.
These included repealing farm laws and the Electricity Amendment Act, 2020; legally secure public procurement at a minimum support price; withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020; withdrawal of registered cases against activists and protesters; and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report to fix MSP with C2 + 50 percent formulas.
Jamhuri Kisan Sabha’s Secretary General, Kulwant Singh Sandhu, said: “In the first round of talks we had delivered a letter to the secretary outlining our eight demands. These lawsuits included the repeal of three farm laws. ”He said this was never taken off the table.
Even a memorandum signed by a dozen representatives of agricultural unions and presented to Agarwal on October 14, mentions this as one of his demands.
After the fifth round of talks with the Center on December 5, the farmers reiterated the demand for repeal. Even when the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar announced that the government was willing to reconsider some of the provisions of the agricultural laws to bring samyata (level playing field) between APMC mandi and private markets, agricultural leaders hardened their stance.
“We had mobilized people on the issue of repeal. We decided not to return until three laws are repealed and two bills are withdrawn, ”Sandhu told The Indian Express.
Earlier, when protests swept through Punjab’s Malwa region on July 27, as many as 11 unions had traveled by tractors from their respective villages and submitted memoranda to their MPs against the then-distant ordinances.
The protests received a major boost when on August 19, Punjab’s 31 farmers’ unions, including the khet mazdoor (agricultural workers) unions, decided to work in coordination.
His memoranda to the Prime Minister and the Punjab government also focused heavily on the issue of repeal of the MSP ordinances and guarantee.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar speaks to the media outside Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on December 5, 2020 (Express photo: Amit Mehra).
The protests intensified after the passage of the three laws. On September 23, the 31 farmers unions announced the ‘rail roko’ agitation starting on October 1, along with dharnas outside shopping malls, company gas pumps and even outside the residences of BJP leaders.
This was again accompanied by a growing demand to repeal all three laws. There was also a consensus that if the government guaranteed the continuation of the MSP, through law, and the APMC, in addition to making amendments to regulate private actors, farmers would be appeased.
However, once the farmers reached Delhi. the maximalist demand for repeal tightened. “The government heard what it wanted to hear,” said a peasant leader. “We always wanted these laws to be repealed.”
A section of government officials attributed the hardening of the peasant position to the presence of leftist leaders in the negotiating team. “They have strong ideological opposition to the government,” said one official. “They will never give in, there are more than 35 representatives and leftist leaders are dominating the discourse.”
The government hopes to be able to remove some of these groups from among the 35, but given the united front they have come forward in rejecting government guarantees and calling for a repeal, that can be a challenge.
Clearly, the fault lines are drawn.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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