The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Thursday said the agitation stood suspended in its current form and the farmers would leave the protest sites together in victory rallies on Saturday, making the announcement after it received a formal letter from the government on the pending demands.

The Morcha deferred the celebrations by a day keeping in mind the period of mourning for Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and the others who died with him in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.

“Farmers’ unity, peace and patience has been the key to the victory and this will not be allowed to erode in any circumstance,” the Morcha said in a statement. It dedicated the “historic victory” to the more than 700 farmers who had died during the yearlong protest, especially mentioning those who were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri.

A special prayer will be offered at the Golden Temple on December 13, it said. While announcing the lifting of the siege of Delhi’s borders, the collective leadership of the movement put the government on notice, saying the battle had been won but the war for a law guaranteeing a minimum support price for every crop would continue.

The announcement came after the Morcha received a formal letter from the secretary to the ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare that detailed all the points on which the two sides had reached an agreement on Wednesday. “It is a historic win,” Morcha leader Shiv Kumar Kakka said.

The Morcha apologised to the local communities at the protest sites for the “inconvenience” caused to them and thanked them for their “patience and support”. It also thanked all the organisations and individuals who had supported the long protest. While their demands have not been fully met, the 40-plus organisations that make up the Morcha were unanimous that what the government was offering was a way forward.

The Morcha is determined to remain collectively vigilant to ensure that the government keeps its promises.

As a step in this direction, it has decided to hold its next meeting on January 15 to evaluate the progress made by the government in implementing all the assurances. Till then, the Morcha will keep in abeyance its Mission UP and Mission Uttarakhand — the plan to campaign against the BJP in the run-up to the Assembly elections in these states without supporting any particular party.

The union leaders, however, maintain that the farmers’ anger at the ruling party remains unabated, particularly because of their vilification by the government.
Morcha leaders privately conceded that some of their demands had not been fully met but maintained that after the repeal of the farm laws, they had to be reasonable and give the government some time on the MSP demand.

“Enacting an MSP law is not something that can be done overnight, and we are aware of that. We are also reasonable, and that is why we agreed to a committee to work on evolving a mechanism that meets our requirements,” All India Kisan Sabha president Ashok Dhawale said.

A major demand that has gone unaddressed is the arrest and dismissal of junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni over the Lakhimpur Kheri “massacre”. The government has been unwilling to negotiate with the farmers on this.

Kavita Kuruganti of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch told The Telegraph that several factors were taken into account during the negotiations. In the case of Teni, a key determinant was that a Supreme Court-appointed judge is monitoring the probe.

“The farmers’ movement knows it did not get everything it had struggled for but it also draws strength from the united functioning that kept this agitation going for so long,” Kuruganti said.

“We have tasted the strength of united functioning and are confident of being able to do this again if needed. Besides, in the negotiations, some informal assurances were given which cannot be pencilled into a formal letter, and we did not want to be unreasonable. There is also internal acknowledgement that we shall have to struggle again for many other things.”

There’s also a sense among the farmer leadership that once the government agreed to withdraw all the cases unconditionally, it would have appeared unreasonable to continue with the agitation in this form.