Farmer Unions to meet again on Saturday; indicate resumption of dialogue with government

The protesting farmer unions on Friday met to discuss the government's latest letter inviting them for talks. Some of the farmer unions indicated that they may decide to resume their dialogue with the Centre to find a solution to the ongoing deadlock over the three contentious farm laws. According to PTI, one of the farmer union leaders said that their demand for a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) will, however, remain the same. 

The framer Union leader said, "We have another meeting tomorrow to take a decision on the Centre's letter. In this meeting, we may decide to resume talks with the government as it appears through its previous letters that it has not been able to understand our issues so far."

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Farmer Unions to meet again 

Speaking further, the farmer union leader said that the government's letters have no proposals and this is why they may decide to hold fresh talks and make it understand their demands. Another leader said, "MSP cannot be separated from our demand of repealing these three laws. In these farm laws, there is mention about private mandis. Who will ensure that our crop is sold at fixed MSP if it is not there?"

Earlier on Thursday, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Vivel Aggrawal wrote to the protesting union and invited them for fresh talks, but made it clear that it would not be "logical" to include in the agenda any dew demand related to MSP, which is out of the purview of the 3 contentious farm bills. 

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Farmers' protest enters day 31

Thousands of agitating farmers at Delhi's borders on Thursday remained steadfast in their demand to repeal the Centre's three new agricultural laws. Security remained tight at the Delhi borders with hundreds of personnel deployed at Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri where thousands of farmers have been staging their protests for nearly a month now. However, amid rampant politicisation of these groups' demands and the Supreme Court also hearing petitions related to the matter, several farmer groups from various states have also backed the agriculture reforms.

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Earlier on Wednesday, the anti-reform farmers hardened their position and asked the government not to repeat the proposal of "meaningless" amendments that they have already rejected but come up with a "concrete" offer in writing for the resumption of talks. Reading out a reply to the government's talks offer during a press conference, farmer leaders said they are ready for dialogue with an open mind if they get a concrete proposal, but made it clear they will not accept anything less than a complete repeal of the three agriculture laws and legal guarantee for MSP.

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(With PTI inputs)