The protesting farmers on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in resuming the stalled dialogue with the government on the three contentious farm laws and warning of an intensification of their agitation if there was no response by May 25.

In its letter, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella outfit of over 40 peasants’ unions spearheading the movement, has set May 25 as the deadline because they are mobilising for observing May 26 as “Black Flag Day” to mark not just the completion of six months of the farmers’ protests at Delhi’s borders but also the seventh anniversary of the Modi regime.

“Mr Prime Minister, this letter is to remind you that, as the head of the government of the largest democracy in the world, the onus of resuming a serious and sincere dialogue with the farmers lies with you. This is to reiterate that we remain firm on our core demands: repeal of the three anti-people farm acts and legal guarantee for every farmer securing MSP, besides protecting farmers from the adverse impact of the proposed (parliamentary) electricity bill,” the letter stated.

“If we do not have a constructive and positive response from your government by 25th of this month, we shall be constrained to announce a further intensification of our struggle in the next phase, beginning with the national day of protest on the 26th of May,” the SKM added, maintaining that farmers do not want to distract the government when there is a pandemic raging.

While the SKM does not want to expose the farmers or anyone else to avoidable health hazards, they maintained that the peasants cannot give up their struggle.

“It is a matter of life and death for them and for their future generations,” it said. By their count, 470 farmers have lost their lives during the protest at Delhi’s borders since November 26.

There has been no dialogue with the government since January 22 when the 11th round of talks ended in a stalemate as the farmers were not prepared to accept the government’s offer to keep the farm laws in abeyance for a couple of years. For the farmers, this is not an option as the threat of the laws will remain on their heads like the proverbial Damocles Sword.