New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government Friday hardened its stance and told the agitating farmers that the three farm laws they were protesting against will not be repealed.
Government sources also said the farmer unions can go to the Supreme Court to get the matter settled.
A bunch of pleas challenging the new farm laws and also those related to the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi’s borders are scheduled to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on 11 January.
The farmer unions, however, have refused to knock on the court’s door. “The farmers have not filed any pleas. Why should we go to the SC for settlement? The government has framed the laws and they will have to repeal it,” Hannan Mollah, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, an umbrella body of 400 farm organisations, told ThePrint.
Mollah said the farmers are going to continue with their protests and go ahead with the kisan parade on tractors planned in Delhi and other state capitals on 26 January.
The two sides met for the eighth time in New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan Friday. While the stalemate continues, the government has decided to hold the next round of talks on 15 January. The farmer unions, however, have not yet decided if they will attend.
Speaking to reporters after the talks ended, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said no agreement could be reached with the farmer unions. “We urged them that if farmer unions give an option other than repealing, we will consider it. But since they did not present any option, we ended the meeting,” he said.
Government sources said they were hopeful of some breakthrough Friday after Lakha Singh, the head of Nanaksar Gurdwara in Kaleran, decided to mediate. He had Thursday met both Tomar and the union leaders in an attempt to break the deadlock.
Heated scenes at meeting
Sources said Friday’s meeting witnessed heated exchanges between farmer leaders and the government interlocutors, which apart from Tomar, included Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and junior Commerce Minister Som Prakash.
“The agriculture minister told the union leaders that the government had in the last few days held consultations with various farm organisations and other stakeholders and majority of them said the three farm laws are good,” a government source told ThePrint. “Some of the union leaders reacted to this strongly and told the minister that he should then go and talk to those farm organisations only and not come to them. The leaders said the three laws are death knell for farmers.”
With the farmers remaining insistent that the government should discuss only about repeal of the three laws and not digress, the government decided to end the meeting.
“The government has refused to repeal the laws and again kept talking about amendments,” Jagmohan Singh Patiala, general secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakonda), told ThePrint. “We reiterated that we don’t want amendments, and will only accept a total repeal. They then said they will not repeal the laws and the matter can only be settled in the Supreme Court.”
Thousands of farmers have been protesting at Delhi’s various borders for over a month in protest against the three laws that the government has said will reform the agriculture sector. Among other things, the laws will allow farmers to sell their produce outside government-controlled agriculture markets.
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram
Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it
India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises.
But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, yielding to crude prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the finest young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here.