Farmers protest at the Singhu border on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 8
In an interesting development after the Bharat Bandh call, farmers’ unions announced that Home Minister Amit Shah has called them for a meeting later on Tuesday evening.
The venue of the meeting was changed to ICAR guest house as some union leaders refused to go to Amit Shah’s residence.
Ahead of the December 9 meeting, Home Minister Amit Shah was to meet farmer leaders at 7 pm.
While the farmer leaders say they stand firm on their stance on a “yes or no” from the Central Government on the three Farm Acts, some farmers’ unions from Haryana have extended their support to the laws.
Thought it has not been confirmed, but some farmer leaders are believed to have gone back without meeting.
Leaders are also under tremendous pressure to deliver as farmers are in no mood to relent on the issue.
Ruldu Singh Mansa appears to have refused to go to the meeting.
Divisions in farmer unions seem to be appearing ahead of meeting with Amit Shah.
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Initially, the government was negotiating with 40 farmers’ organisations but it seems the government has called those who may be open to “middle path”.
Apparently, the government is trying to send the message that it is negotiating with those who have countrywide support on the issue.
Notably yesterday, Haryana farmers had written to Agriculture Minister Tomar declaring support for the three contentious farm laws.
“50,000 farmers from 70,000 IPOs are supporting the three Central laws,” a letter to Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, demanding the “three Acts are not repealed”.
Joginder Singh, president of BKU (Ugrahan), opposed the way ‘selective’ farmer organisations accepted the invitation of talks given by Home Minister Amit Shah.
He said he was not invited for the talks and added that last week, they were also given a similar offer to join the talks alone, which they had rejected and had asked to invite all 32 farmers’ organisations.
Meanwhile, farmer leaders slammed the government for treating the “agitation as Punjab-centric and giving it Khalistan hues”.
“We stand firm on our stance regarding the three laws,” they said and added that Amit Shah, who was keeping conditions for talks, is now ready to talk with us.
He said such actions created confusion among people.
As per sources, the decision to join ‘informal’ talks was not unanimous among the 32 farmers’ organisations. The BKU (Ugrahan) was kept out deliberately.
As many as 14 union leaders, including BKU chief Rakesh Tikait, will meet Amit Shah in the meeting scheduled for the evening.
Rakesh Tikait is a son of well-known late farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, in the western area of Uttar Pradesh.
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