In the fifth round of talks with the government, the group of farmers went on a ‘silent vow’ for about an hour and sought a yes or no response to their main demand
New Delhi | The fifth round of talks between the government and protesting farmers was also inconclusive on Saturday over the new agricultural laws, where the leaders of the farmers’ organizations remained adamant on the demand for withdrawal of the new agricultural laws. Saturday saw dramatic scenes in the meeting as farmers’ leaders went completely silent and showed the placards of Yes or No to the govt seeking a definite stand on repealing of the contentious laws. After this, the Centre has called another meeting on 9 December to end the deadlock. After more than four hours of talks with three Union ministers and senior officials, farmer leaders said the government had sought more time for internal discussions to present a final proposal to resolve the issue.
However, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government wanted concrete suggestions from 40 farmers leaders present at the meeting on their major concerns. He hoped that a solution would be found with their cooperation. The farmers have declared ‘Bharat Bandh’ on 8 December and warned that if the government does not agree to their demands, the agitation will be intensified and more routes leading to the national capital will be blocked.
Trade unions and other organizations have expressed their support in this. At the meeting, Agriculture Minister Tomar appealed to the farmers leaders to send the elderly, women and children back home from the protest sites. Tomar led the negotiations on behalf of the government. It was also attended by Minister of Railways, Commerce and Food, Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Prakash.
After the meeting, the Agriculture Minister said that the government has assured the farmers that procurement will continue at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the mandis will be strengthened. Tomar said, “We wanted concrete suggestions from farmer leaders on some key issues, but that did not happen in today’s meeting. We will meet once again on 9 December. We have told them that the government will take care of all their concerns and our effort will be to find a solution.”
In the fifth round of talks with the government, the group of farmers went on a ‘silent vow’ for about an hour and sought a yes or no response to their main demand for withdrawal of all three new agricultural laws. Some of the farmer leaders present in the meeting were seen holding their fingers on their lips and holding a paper written ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) General Secretary Onkar Singh Agol said that the leaders were on ‘silent vow’ because the government was not giving a clear answer on whether to withdraw the law or not. A farmer leader said that the government told him that first they would send proposals to the representatives of the farmers and they would attend the next meeting only after discussing the proposals.
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