LIVE updates from the farmers’ protest: Food from the ‘langar’ (community kitchen) arrived in a van to Vigyan Bhawan, after two hours of discussions and the two parties took a break for tea and snacks.
The latest updates from Farmers’ Protest: Three union ministers joined farm leaders on Wednesday to share food at ‘langar’ organized by farmers protesting during their sixth round of talks to resolve the deadlock on new farm laws.
Samajwadi Party Chairman Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday that the workers of the ruling BJP also want the withdrawal of three new farm laws, as they feel they will not be able to stand up to the people.
The Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress on Wednesday urged farmers protesting against the Center’s agricultural laws to speak directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying otherwise the dialogue will yield no results.
As farmers’ protest against three new farm laws continues, union leaders said Wednesday that farmers in some parts of the country are being forced to sell crops, including rice, below the Minimum Livelihood Price, as rates The market share has fallen and they affirmed that the agitation will continue until the government agrees to their demands.
The Center and protesting farmers unions will resume stalled talks on Wednesday and the latter will maintain their hard-line position that parliaments will only be on modalities to repeal the three new farm laws and provide a legal guarantee on the MSP, between Other themes.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday in an exclusive interview with the news agency AND ME, called on farmers to engage the government in a logical debate on each clause of the new agricultural laws and allow the administration “to do what is necessary to address their problems.”
Ahead of the crucial sixth round of talks after a three-week hiatus, Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal met with BJP leader and Interior Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday. The sources said they discussed and finalized the government’s position for the meeting.
Tomar, the Minister of Agriculture, and Goyal, the Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs, and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Som Parkash have been representing the Center in talks with farmers. Tomar said Monday that he is hopeful for an early solution to the deadlock.
The Center on Monday invited the 40 protesting farmers’ unions to the next round of talks on December 30 on all relevant issues to find an “open-minded” “logical solution” to the protracted stalemate on the three new farm laws that they were enacted in September. .
But in its Tuesday letter, Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella organization representing farmers’ unions, said modalities to repeal the three contentious laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum subsistence price (MSP) should be part of the schedule.
El Morcha also said that the agenda should also include amendments that will be made and notified in the Ordinance of the Commission for the Management of Air Quality in the National Capital Region and Adjacent Areas, 2020 to exclude farmers from its provisions. criminal.
Through the letter, La Morcha also formally accepted the government’s invitation for dialogue.
The letter also stated that the withdrawal of the 2020 Electricity Amendment Bill to protect the interests of farmers should also be on the agenda.
The fifth round of talks took place on December 5, while the sixth round originally scheduled for December 9 was suspended after an informal meeting of Interior Minister Shah with some union leaders failed to achieve any progress.
However, the government had followed up Shah’s meeting with a draft proposal sent to the unions in which it had suggested 7-8 amendments to the new laws and written guarantees on the MSP’s procurement system. He has ruled out repeal of the three agricultural laws.
In a letter to the farmers’ unions, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Aggarwal invited them to the talks on Monday at 2 pm Wednesday at Vigyan Bhavan in the national capital.
The farmers had also written to the government on December 26 listing the agenda.
In the latest letter, La Morcha noted that in his December 26 communication to the government, he had mistakenly mentioned “changes” instead of “withdrawal” in the 2020 Electricity Amendment Bill.
Farmers unions also postponed their proposal to march tractors against controversial farm laws until Thursday, so that the demonstration does not clash with their talks with the government.
Thousands of protesting farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at three border points of Delhi, Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri, for the past 31 days, demanding the repeal of the three agricultural laws and the legal guarantee for MSP .
Congress demanded legal sanctity to farmers’ demands, including that of guaranteeing the MSP.
In a joint press conference, Congressional leaders Rajeev Shukla and Govind Dotasra said the government should immediately repeal the three farm laws and bring in new ones after incorporating farmers’ demands and then having Parliament pass them.
Shukla also said that it was wrong for the government to qualify the farmers’ agitation as policy as it is an attempt to smear farmers.
Meanwhile, the supreme and former PNC agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, accused the Center of demolishing agricultural laws without consulting the states and claimed that agriculture cannot be managed “sitting in Delhi” as it involves farmers working in distant villages.
Pawar also raised questions about the composition of the three-member ministerial group that negotiates with the unions and said the ruling party should have presented leaders with a “deep” understanding of agriculture and farmers’ issues.
In an interview with the PTI, the former trade union minister said the government must take the protests seriously and that it was “unfair” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to blame opposition parties for the farmers’ agitation.
He said the opposition parties will accept a call on their future course of action on Wednesday if the government fails to resolve the impasse.
The three agricultural laws have been projected by the Center as important reforms in the agricultural sector that will eliminate intermediaries and allow farmers to sell their products anywhere in the country.
However, protesting farmers have expressed fear that the new laws would pave the way to remove the MSP’s safety cushion and end the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of large corporations.
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