Protesting farmers are not optimistic about Wednesday’s meeting with the government but have decided to participate nonetheless, spelling out again the agenda for the discussions in a letter to the agriculture ministry: the modalities for the repeal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee of MSP.
The Sanyukta Kisan Morcha — the banner under which the farmers are resisting the three “black laws” — wrote to the ministry on Tuesday to make it clear that they are coming to talk about the issues on the agenda they had sent to the government over the weekend.
The letter, addressed to secretary in the department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare, Sanjay Agarwal, lists the agenda again:
⚫ Modalities for repeal of the three laws
⚫ Mechanisms to make remunerative MSP, recommended by the National Farmers’ Commission (Swaminathan Commission), a legally guaranteed entitlement for all farmers and all agricultural commodities;
⚫ Amendments to exclude farmers from the penal provisions of the Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020; and
⚫ Withdrawal of the Electricity Bill.
The Kisan Morcha had spelt out the agenda and even the sequence of discussion in the letter it wrote on Saturday to the ministry accepting its offer to resume talks, but the government made no mention of it while fixing the date and time for the meeting. In Tuesday’s letter, the Morcha wrote: “It is necessary to follow our agenda to arrive at a ‘logical solution’.”
The phrase “logical solution” is borrowed from a December 24 letter from the same department to the Kisan Morcha that said the government is ready to find a “logical solution”.
With the agitation gathering steam not just at Delhi’s borders but elsewhere in the country – Patna on Tuesday saw a sizeable protest under the aegis of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, which had given the original call for “Dilli Chalo” – the farmers are in no mood to relent. Going back is not an option as the three new laws would disrupt the farming sector and reduce them all to labourers, the farmers say.
In an interview to PTI, former agriculture minister and NCP leader Sharad Pawar said the Opposition parties would take a call on the future course of action on the farm bills if the government fails to resolve the issue at Wednesday’s meeting. The Opposition has extended solidarity to the protests and supported the Bharat Bandh called by the Kisan Morcha earlier this month but kept a distance in deference to the wishes of the farmers, who have refused to allow any political party to use their platform.
The NCP leader also sought to address the criticism of the government and the BJP that the Opposition was being hypocritical in supporting the agitation when many of the parties had in the past wanted similar reforms. “I and Manmohan Singh also wanted to bring some reforms in the agriculture sector but not in the same way as the current dispensation did. That time the agriculture ministry held long deliberations on the proposed reforms with agriculture ministers of all states and experts of the sector,’’ Pawar said, criticising the government for forcing the laws on the country without even consulting the state governments.