All India Kisan Sabha General Secretary Hannan Mollah on Tuesday asserted that the farmer leaders will not attend the consultations with the government on December 9 (Wednesday). The late-night development came after talks between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and a select group of farmers’ representatives failed to make any breakthrough.
The farmer union leaders insisted on their demand for the repeal of three new laws and rejecting the government’s proposal for amendments. “No meeting will be held between farmers and govt tomorrow (December 9). The minister has said that a proposal will be given to the farmer leaders tomorrow (Wednesday). Farmer leaders will hold a meeting over government’s proposal,” news agency ANI reported quoting Mollah.
Mollah said a final decision on attending the sixth round of talks will be taken at a meeting of union leaders Wednesday noon at Singhu border, where thousands of farmers have been camping for the last 12 days. “The government is not ready to take back the farm laws. Tomorrow we will hold a meeting at Singhu border (Delhi-Haryana border) at 12 pm,” added Mollah.
However, a few leaders who attended the meeting with Shah appeared to be in favour of necessary amendments and assurances on the minimum support price (MSP) regime and the mandi system rather than a complete repeal of the laws enacted in September, indicating some kind of divisions among the unions, as reported by news agency PTI.
Earlier, the government’s sixth round of talks with representatives of farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders against three new farm laws was scheduled to take place on Wednesday. Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with select farmer leaders in a bid to break the deadlock as farmers observed Bharat Bandh on Tuesday.
A Union Cabinet meeting is scheduled to be held on Wednesday at 10.30 am. Three union ministers — Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Som Prakash — were scheduled to hold discussions with 40 farmer unions’ leaders, including the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) which is spearheading the protests. December 9 will make the 14th day of the farmers’ protest.
On Tuesday, ‘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.
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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.
