On the 14th day of turmoil, farmers insist on repeal of farm laws while government agrees to make changes

LIVE updates from farmers’ protest: Union Interior Minister Amit Shah reiterated the government’s position against repealing new farm laws in a meeting with farmers on Tuesday, after which the sixth was canceled round of negotiations scheduled for today. Leaving the meeting, peasant leaders said that the government would instead submit a proposal for consideration, to be discussed at a midday meeting on the Sindhu border on Wednesday. “Tomorrow (Wednesday) there will be no meeting between the farmers and the government. The minister has said that a proposal will be delivered to peasant leaders. Farmer leaders will hold a meeting on the government’s proposal, ”said All India Kisan Sabha Secretary General Hannan Mollah. “The government is not ready to withdraw the agricultural laws. We will have a meeting at the Singhu border tomorrow at 12 pm, “added Mollah.

Also attending the meeting were three union ministers who have been leading the government’s consultations with agitated farmers: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Food Minister Piyush Goyal and MoS for Commerce Som Parkash. In addition to Mollah, participating farmer leaders included Rakesh Tikait from the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU). Some farmer leaders said they first expected the meeting to be held at Shah’s residence, but the venue was moved to the National Complex of Agricultural Sciences, Pusa. The meeting, which lasted until late at night, came on a day when a ‘Bharat Bandh’ observed by farmers to pressure their demand affects life in some states. The meeting, however, appeared to have created a discord between the organizations that led the protests on the Delhi borders for the past 12 days with the head of the BKU (Ugrahan), which is one of the bloc’s largest groups, questioning the rationale for the conversations one day before the official consultations are scheduled. In a social media post, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, who was not invited to the meeting with Shah, said there was no need for the talks before the official consultations and hoped the leaders attending the meeting would take the opinion into account. of the group in general.