Farmers’ talks with government hit roadblock, next meeting date not fixed

The eleventh round of the talks between the farmers and the government remained inconclusive on Friday with the government sticking to its stand and the farmers demanding the repeal of the three farm laws. No date has been fixed for the next round of talks.

“In the meeting today, the government stuck to its stand that it was only willing to suspend the laws for 18 months and we stuck to our demand that we wanted the repeal of laws. The talks didn’t progress beyond this,” said Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Bharati Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) chief.

The latest round of talks was held in the backdrop of the previous meeting held on January 20, 2020, where the government yielded some ground in its bid to end the farmers' ongoing protests at various border points of the national capital. The Centre had offered to put on hold the three laws for 12-18 months and also set up a joint committee to find solutions. The farmers rejected the proposal of January 21.

The farmers have been protesting and demanding the repeal of the three laws for almost two months now.

The government took note of the threatening calls made to Dr Darshan Pal, attack on the vehicles of farmers and police stopping vehicles of farmer leaders. But no calls were made by the officials to sort the issue.

The meeting, which was scheduled to begin by 12 noon, began only after 12.45 pm as the delegation led by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal and Industries Minister of State Som Prakash was late by 45 minutes.

After sitting with the farmers for 20 minutes, the meeting broke for lunch after which the minister said their team had to discuss a few matters. The minister asked the farmers to discuss the proposal put forth by the government again amongst themselves.

“Later, around 4.30 pm, the government team along with the minister came back to meet us. The minister reiterated that the government had nothing more to offer. He said if we wanted to speak to the government again, we could inform them of another date. The government did not give any date,” added Ugrahan.

The meeting ended by 4.45 pm with the farmers and the government speaking for hardly 30 minutes. “The minister made us sit there for close to four hours. This is an insult. When he came, he asked us to consider the government's proposal and said that he is ending the process of meetings,” said SS Pandher of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee.

Tomar alleged that the talks remained inconclusive because the farmers’ unions did not have the welfare of the farmers on their mind. He asserted that the government was seeking alternatives.

“If we speak to the government, it will be done by tomorrow. The tractor rally will go ahead as planned along the Outer Ring Road. There will a meeting with the police later to map the details,” said Rakesh Tikait, Bharat Kisan Union chief.

All the farmer leaders maintained that the protest would continue whether the government would speak to them or not. “We have no other option before us. If we agree to the government’s decision to only suspend the laws, it is akin to farmers dying by suicide as that will be the only option left for us,” said Ugrahan.

This is not the first time that the talks have hit a wall. After the meeting on December 8, after which the government had sent their proposal to amend a few sections of the law, the talks had been stalled. Then around December 27, a few letters were exchanged and on December 30, the talks began again.

Pointing towards the breakdown of talks on earlier occasions, Tikait said if the farmers don’t meet the government on Saturday, the talks may not progress for another 15-20 days. “The protest will continue strongly. Then, after a couple of weeks, the talks will begin again. We are at the borders. We are the farmers of this country and the government has to speak to us,” added Tikait.

He quipped that no one will agree that their lassi is sour, so talks will take time to reach a conclusion.