Intellectuals appeal to Union govt to resume talks with farmers

CHANDIGARH: Amid continued stalemate over the three farm laws, 58 academicians, former civil servants and advocates on Sunday made an appeal to the Union government to immediately invite the protesting farmers for talks to break the logjam.

The intellectuals, while also appealing to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha leadership to positively respond to the government’s invitation, said that dialogue was the urgent need of the hour to end this stalemate. There has been no dialogue between the government and the farmers’ leadership since January 22 and thousands of farmers from various states are sitting and suffering on the borders of Delhi to lodge their protest, they said.

The signatories include former Union minister of state, agriculture, Som Pal Shastry, former Punjab chief secretary TKA Nair, Punjab Agricultural University vice-chancellor Baldev Singh Dhillon, former PAU V-C KS Aulakh, former advocate general, Punjab, Rajinder Singh Cheema, CRRID senior professors Ranjit Singh Ghuman and Sucha Singh Gill, and retired IPS officer Gurdial Singh Pandher, besides other academicians, advocates and journalists.

They said the long drawn peaceful movement by farmers against the three laws, is the manifestation of the persistent and deep-rooted agrarian crisis in the country. “In the understanding of the farmers, and rightly so, the implementation of these three laws would not only accentuate their crisis but would also pose a threat to their livelihood,” reads the appeal.

The signatories said the adamant attitude of the Union government is causing unprecedented psychological and physical sufferings to lakhs of agitating farmers consisting of women, children, elderly and youth.