No headway in talks with farmers
Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar and consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal held talks with a delegation of representatives of farmers from Punjab, who are protesting a set of laws passed recently to liberalise the farm sector, at the national capital’s Vigyan Bhawan on Friday, with the meeting ending inconclusively with both sides sticking to their ground.
At least 40 leaders of various farmers’ bodies, including constituents of the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella platform spearheading the protests, participated in the talks, the first meeting that agitating farmers held with Cabinet ministers.
During the seven-hour crucial meeting, both sides heard each other’s stand and tried to bring common ground for restoring rail services in Punjab, which is currently facing a blockade.
“The meeting remained inconclusive and the ministers after hearing our side said they would again meet shortly to resolve the issue,” Bhartiya
Kisan Manch president Jathedar Boota Singh Shadipur told news agency PTI after the meeting.
He said the farmers’ unions wanted services of goods trains to resume as Punjab was suffering due to the blockade. Train services to the state remain suspended due to the farmers’ agitation over the new farm laws.
However, the Centre was keen to start both passenger and goods trains to Punjab and end the blockade.
The farmers’ unions would meet again on November 18 in Chandigarh to chalk out further strategy on the issue.
Officials told PTI that both sides were firm on their respective stands on the new farm laws. The ministers and the government officials tried to
THE FARMERS’ UNIONS WOULD MEET AGAIN ON NOVEMBER 18 IN CHANDIGARH TO CHALK OUT FURTHER STRATEGY ON THE ISSUE.
convince the farmer leaders why these laws were important and how beneficial they were for the farming sector, they pointed out.
However, the farmers stuck to their stand that these legislations must be repealed and replaced with another set of laws framed with wider consultation with all stakeholders. The farmers also demanded a guarantee on the MSP front.
Government officials said that a detailed presentation was made on the procurement levels, but no breaking ground could be reached as farmer unions remained adamant on their stand
This was the second attempt by the government to negotiate with the farmers and break an impasse following a cultivators’ agitation in some states, particularly Punjab, against the Centre’s move to open up agricultural markets in the country.
Agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal had met a farmers’ delegation on October 14, after inviting them for talks, to convince them to end their protest, but the meeting had ended in a deadlock.
The ongoing talks appear to be an attempt by the government to be accommodative of a pre-condition set by farm leaders during their meeting with the agriculture secretary on October 14 that any talks must happen in the presence of Union ministers and not just at the bureaucratic level.
Farmers in Punjab have launched protests, blockading rail tracks and road transport, since the government enacted three farm-sector laws in September, creating a key political challenge for the Narendra Modi government.
The three laws, together, allow agribusinesses to freely trade farm produce by easing restrictions, permit private traders to stockpile essential commodities for future sales and lay down new rules for contract farming.
Farmers protesting these changes say the reforms could make them vulnerable to exploitation, erode their bargaining power and weaken the government’s minimum support price (MSP) system, which offers cultivators assured prices from the government, largely for wheat and rice.
The Modi government has said the reforms were unrelated to the MSP system, which, it assured, would continue to exist. Farmers, however, aren’t convinced.
On October 30, food and consumers affairs minister Piyush Goyal and agriculture minister Narendra Tomar, interacting with reporters, said that the “Centre’s door was open for talks with the farmers”.
THE MODI GOVERNMENT HAS SAID THE REFORMS WERE UNRELATED TO THE MSP SYSTEM, WHICH, IT ASSURED, WOULD CONTINUE TO EXIST. FARMERS, HOWEVER, AREN’T CONVINCED.