3.41 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the agriculture reforms are exactly what the farmers’ bodies and the opposition parties wanted, reports ANI. He adds that the Centre is committed to the welfare of the farmers and will keep assuring them and addressing their concerns, reports ANI.

2.34 pm: Union Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh questions Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on not opposing private companies engaged in contract farming with potato producers, reports ANI.

“I would like to ask Punjab CM that isn’t private companies making contracts with farmers to grow potatoes?” says SIngh. Did they usurp their land? Why didn’t you oppose this?”

2.29 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says new farm laws give capitalists the license to increase prices, reports The Indian Express.

12.39 pm: Adityanath adds that the farmers’ movement is seemingly pursuing the cause of the “tukde-tukde” gang. “Those who want to create unrest, anarchy and division in this country are now trying to misguide the farmers,” he says. “We appeal to protesting farmers to be open for dialgoue.”

“Tukde-tukde gang” is a term coined by the BJP to malign its critics as people working to balkanise India.

The UP chief minister also says that dialogue is the biggest tool in democracy.

12.34 pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath says the farmers’ protest is being hijacked by anti-national forces, News18 reports. He points to former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid’s posters being seen at the protests. “Anarchy in backdrop of farmer protest can’t be accepted,” he adds.

12.29 pm: Two farmers from Punjab die in a road accident while going back to Patiala from Delhi, PTI reports. Their tractor trolley was hit by a truck in Karnal district of Haryana.

12.15 pm: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the country’s top trade association, calls for an early resolution of the farmers’ crisis, saying that it is causing a daily loss of Rs 3,500 crore, ANI reports.

12.10 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet farmers in Gujarat’s Kutch district on Tuesday, during his visit to the area to inaugurate a renewable energy park and other projects, The Indian Express reports.

12.06 pm: The farmers sit-in protest at the Rajasthan-Haryana border continues for the third day on Monday, ANI reports. Rampal Jat from the Kisan Mahapanchayat says the three laws will businessmen and not the farmers.

12.04 pm: The Rapid Action Force is deployed at the Singhu border, ANI reports.

12.01 pm: Bharat Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait says the government should visit villages and hold meetings with the farmers, ANI reports. “Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is also a farmer,” Tikait adds. “At what rate was his farm produce sold, was it sold at MSP [minimum support price]? Did he suffer loss or earned profit?

10.10 am: Union minister Nitin Gadkari says he doesn’t think social activist Anna Hazare will join the farmers’ protest, ANI reports. “We have not done anything against the farmers,” he says. “It is the right of farmers to sell their produce in [the] mandi, to traders or anywhere else.”

He adds: “I come from Vidarbha. Over 10,000 poor farmers committed suicide. This issue should not be politicised. Gadkari also says that the Centre is willing to make changes in the laws according to the farmers’ “correct” suggestions.

10 am: Here are some visuals from the Singhu border.

9.50 am: The farmers protest enters the 20th day.

9.40 am: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Amarinder Singh continued to trade barbs amid the protest on Monday.

Kejriwal had accused Singh of colluding with the Centre so that cases of alleged financial irregularities against his son could be withdrawn.

“Every Punjabi knows I am not one to be cowed down by any amount of false cases... they also know you will sell your soul if it serves your purpose,” Singh said in a tweet. “The whole world has seen how you sold off farmers’ interests by notifying one of the black laws. Why did you do that?”

Kejriwal responded: “You were part of the committee which drafted these Bills. These Bills are YOUR ‘gift’ to the nation. Captain sahib, why do BJP leaders never accuse u [you] of double standards the way they accuse all other leaders?”

9.35 am: All India Kisan Sangharsh Committee says that it is ready for talks with the Centre again but with certain conditions, Hindustan Times reports.

“The government [is] repeatedly dishing out old rejected logic,” All India Kisan Sangharsh Committee Secretary Avik Saha says. “Farmers are ready for talks, but the three Farm Acts and the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 have to be withdrawn.”

9.30 am: Social activist Anna Hazare on Monday warned the Centre that he would resume his hunger strike against its failure to implement the recommendations of the MS Swaminathan Commission, PTI reports.

Hazare had begun his fast in Maharashtra’s Ralegaon Siddhi village in 2019. He called off the fast after the then Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh assured him that the Centre would form a committee to implement the recommendations.

Here are the top updates from Monday