Farmers Protest Latest Update: As the eighth round of talks with the Centre began at Vigyan Bhawan, farmer leaders urged the government to repeal the farm laws so that they can return home without any complain and end their protest. On the other hand, the Centre made it clear that repealing the farm laws is not possible at this moment. The Centre also insisted that the talks must be limited to contentious clauses and ruled out a complete withdrawal of Acts.
At the eighth round of negotiations with the 41-member representative group of protesting farmers, the Centre asserted the farm reform laws have been welcomed by a large section of farmers in various states and asked the unions to think about the interests of the entire country.
However, the talks remained inconclusive and the next round of talks between the Central Government and farmer leaders will be held on January 15.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, held talks with unions at Vigyan Bhawan.
All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) member Kavitha Kuruganti, who was also present in the meeting, said the government has told unions that it can not and will not repeal these laws.
Around one hour after the meeting, the three ministers stepped out of the discussion hall for their own internal consultations, after union leaders decided to observe silence while holding out papers with slogans including ”Jeetenge ya Marenge” (We will either win or die).
Before the start of the meeting, Tomar had also met senior BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah for about an hour.
On January 4, the seventh round of talks ended inconclusively as the unions stuck to their demand for a complete repeal of three farm laws, while the government wanted to discuss only the “problematic” clauses or other alternatives to end the stalemate.
Before that, in the sixth round of talks held on December 30 last year, some common ground was reached on two demands — decriminalisation of stubble-burning and continuation of power subsidies.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi for over a month now against the three laws, despite the cold weather and heavy rains.
Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms aimed at increasing farmers” income, but the protesting farmers have raised concerns that these legislations would weaken the minimum support price (MSP) and “mandi” (wholesale market) systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.