Mehbooba Mufti draws farmers' protest parallel to J&K; says BJP's nerves & failure visible

Ahead of the fifth round of talks between the farmers and the Centre on Saturday, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has said that BJP is scared of people. In a tweet on Friday, Mufti said that the ongoing farmers' protest has brought Government of India "to its knees". Slamming the Centre for abrogating Article 370, the former CM of J&K said that the nervousness and failure of BJP is visible when they do not allow dissent and peaceful protests. 

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) Supremo Mamata Banerjee called for a party meeting on the contentious farm laws and said that the Government of India must withdraw the anti-farmer bills, while also warning of a statewide protest.

Meanwhile, in a big step, Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal wrote to President of India stating that he will return his Padma Vibhushan award because of Centre's stiff attitude towards farmers. Senior Akali Dal leader Prem Singh Chandumajra has said that the party is reaching out to political parties across the nation who are in support of farmers against the newly enacted laws. 

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Centre to meet farmers again on December 5

Earlier on November 3, the fourth round of talks between the Centre and the farmers' unions concluded without any significant progress. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar announced that they would meet again at 2 pm on December 5. Besides him, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and MoS Commerce Som Parkash represented the Centre in the deliberations.

Revealing that the discussion took place in a good atmosphere, Tomar stated that the Union government is willing to discuss the unions' objections pertaining to points such as strengthening the APMC, regulating the private Mandis, dispute resolution and apprehensions over the MSP. Moreover, he exuded confidence of the two sides reaching a consensus on Saturday. On the other hand, the farmer unions remained steadfast in their demand for the repeal of The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

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