Amit Shah promises to give in writing for amendments; farmer unions insist on repeal of laws; their leaders to hold meeting at Singhu border over Centre's proposal
As Bharat Bandh wound up to a mostly peaceful close, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday met the farmer leaders ahead of the sixth round of talks between Central Ministers and farmer representatives on Wednesday but the two-and-half hours meeting remained inconclusive as the Government made it clear that amendments can be made but the farm laws won’t be replealed. The farmer leaders refused to accept anything less the repeal of the laws.
Shah invited all 13 farmer unions on Tuesday to discuss a way out by promising to give in writing that Government will bring in amendments, but the farmers refused his proposal. This was the first time that Shah met farmers’ leaders to discuss their concerns and demands. The Government will send a proposal for the consideration of farmers and the unions will hold a meeting to discuss the same.
With this, the sixth round of talks between farmer leaders and the Government scheduled for Wednesday has been canceled, All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah said after meeting with Shah. “We’ll decide on next round of talks after consulting others,” said Hannan Mollah.
At the meeting, Shah proposed written assurances on amendments on minimum support price and APMC. The new proposals will be given to farmer unions on Wednesday.
The meeting between Shah and the leaders of the protesting farmers on Tuesday got delayed owing to confusion over the venue of the meeting. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7pm but it began after 8pm as some of the union leaders were not ready to hold the meeting at Shah’s residence. Finally, the meeting was shifted to the office of Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal too were present.
Farmer leader Ruldu Singh Mansa returned saying he won’t be part of meeting due to confusion over venue. In a social media post, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, who was not invited to the meeting, said there was no need for the talks before official consultation. The meeting appeared to have created a discord among the organisations spearheading the protests on Delhi borders for the past 12 days.
The head of the BKU (Ugrahan), which is one of the largest outfits in the bloc, questioned the rationale of the talks a day before the scheduled official consultations.
Hours ahead of a meeting with Shah, farmers reiterated their stance of not compromising on their demand that the three contentious farm laws be repealed. "There is no midway, we will demand just "yes" or "no" from Shah at today's meeting," farmer leader Rudru Singh Mansa said.
The farmer leaders included eight from Punjab and five from various nationwide organisations. The participating leaders included Hannan Mollah of the All India Kisan Sabha, Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), Gurnam Singh, Shiv Kumar Kakka.