Talks between the protesting farmers and central ministers remained inconclusive on Thursday after several hours of negotiations.
The farmers' protest at the Punjab-Haryana border is set to continue through the weekend as the next round of discussion has been scheduled for Sunday evening.
Though there appeared to be a broad understanding between the two sides that there would be no offensive from either end till the next round of talks, some farmers attempted to push past the heavy fortifications at the Shambhu border on Friday afternoon, resulting in a round of teargassing.
Speaking to reporters in the early hours of Friday after a five-hour meeting with central ministers — with Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann in attendance — Jagjit Singh Dallewal of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Sidhupur had said the farmers would not return from the Punjab-Haryana border, but would neither try to move ahead to Delhi till Sunday.
"The protest will continue peacefully. We will not do anything; neither will they (police) do any shelling. We will appeal to the farmers to maintain calm and the government has taken the responsibility to ensure that there is no shelling. When meetings are underway, how can we move ahead (towards Delhi as originally planned)? Then, how can the meetings continue? They (the government) have called for a meeting, we will wait till then. On Sunday, if we do not get any positive result, then we will….”
To a question on whether Sunday’s meeting will be the last, Dallewal was non-committal, pointing out that the government had not been ready to even talk about MSP till Friday. "Now the ministers are saying that we will come out with a framework; give us two days. We said if you want to make the framework, go ahead but we will continue with our protest."
Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda said Thursday’s discussions were detailed and the decision was taken to take time to weigh the pros and cons so that there will not be any problems in future.
The protest on Friday drew support from Haryana farmers who "freed" toll plazas across the state for a few hours.
