Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday said he was hopeful that the protesting unions would soon complete their internal discussions and resume talks with the government. “We will be able to find a solution successfully,” he added.
Meanwhile, protesting farmer unions said a decision on the Centre’s offer for fresh talks has been deferred to Wednesday.
On Sunday, the agriculture ministry had asked protestors to specify their concerns over its draft proposal of amendments to the three new laws, and settle on a convenient date for the meeting.
The protests at Delhi’s borders – Singhu, Tikri, UP Gate, and Chilla – entered its 27th day.
The Centre had on December 9 proposed to make amendments related to at least seven matters, and provide a “written assurance” on the continuation of the minimum support price.
Here are the top updates of the day
10.17 pm: Thiruvananthapuram Police use water cannon on Youth Congress workers marching towards Kerala Raj Bhavan.
9.52 pm: Congress seeks President President Ram Nath Kovind’s intervention for withdrawal of the three farm lawsand says a memorandum signed by two crore farmers would be handed over to him on December 24 by a party delegation led by Rahul Gandhi, reports PTI.
6.44 pm: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has refused to give assent to the special Assembly session on December 23, reports PTI. The special session was to discuss and reject the Centre’s new farm laws.
6.40 pm: Protesting farmer unions say a decision on the Centre’s offer for fresh talks has been deferred to Wednesday, reports PTI. Farmer leader Kulwant Singh Sandhu adds that 32 unions from Punjab held a meeting and discussed the next course of action.
6.38 pm: Tomar says some farmer leaders from Uttar Pradesh met him to extend their support to the farm laws today, reports ANI. “They said that no amendments should be made in the three laws,” he adds.
6.36 pm: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar says he is hopeful that the protesting unions would soon complete their internal discussions and resume talks with the government, reports PTI. “We will be able to find a solution successfully,” he adds.
5.53 pm: A meeting of Bharatiya Kisan Union leaders and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is underway at Krishi Bhawan. Members of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti are also present.
5.43 pm: A farmer protesting at Delhi’s Singhu border alleges that his photo has been illegally used by the BJP to promote the farms laws in its advertisements. Harpreet Singh threatens to send legal notice to the party, with his original photograph and a copy of the advertisement.
The advertisement featured an edited image of a farmer carrying a plough. Singh said the photograph, clicked around seven years ago, has been taken from his social media page without his permission.
5.38 pm: Farmers show black flags to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today, reports NDTV. They tried to block the convoy escorting Khattar, who was on his way to Ambala.
5.30 pm: Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala marches to the Raj Bhavan to express solidarity with the protesting farmers, reports PTI.
5.27 pm: Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee member Sarwan Singh Pandher says the Centre has decided not to withdraw the farm laws. “They released a letter stating that if farmers want amendments in these laws, they must provide date and time for discussion,” he says. He adds that the letter is not a step forward but a way to trick farmers.
5.20 pm: Farmers agitating at Ghazipur border open one way of the road for commuters.
3.30 pm: The Delhi Traffic Police says that the Chilla border is closed for traffic coming from Noida and Ghaziabad to Delhi due to the farmers’ protest.
2.03 pm: Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan says that by proposing to amend the contentious agricultural laws, the government has proved that the legislations are flawed, reports The Indian Express. “Any law, which has so many flaws, needs to be scrapped,” he tells the newspaper in an interview. “If the Centre is really keen to for welfare of the farmers, they can seek feedback from farmers and accordingly bring in farmer-friendly reforms.”
1.58 pm: Arhtiyas, or agriculture commission agents in Punjab close their mandis for four days to protest against the Income Tax raids on them, reports ANI. “Raids are being conducted to weaken the farmers’ movement,” Kharar Market Arthi Association President Sunil Agarwal tells the news agency.
10.32 am: A 70-year-old farmer from Tarn Taran district in Punjab allegedly attempted to die by suicide on Monday morning by taking pest control tablets soon after he reached the Singhu border to join the protests, reported The Indian Express.
10.29 am: Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait says his association has not received any invitation to meet from Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar yet. “Farmers have decided they won’t go back till the government takes back all the three farm laws,” he tells ANI. “It will take more than a month to resolve all issues.”
10.26 am: Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha says the Narendra Modi-led central government seems to be caught in an “ego clash with farmers”. “Demands of Indian farmers are reasonable,” he adds, according to ANI. “[The] Centre must let go of this ego and agree to all demands of farmers. No resolution seems to be in sight. Government must repeal three black laws with immediate effect.”
10.25 am: Commission agents, known as “arhtiyas” in Punjab will shut their shops shut from Tuesday till Saturday in protest against income tax raids allegedly initiated to intimidate them for backing the farmers’ protest, reports NDTV.
10.21 am: Vehicular movement at the Delhi-Meerut highway has completely stopped from 7.30 am as the farmers protesting against the three new laws at the UP Gate border blocked all its carriageways, reports Hindustan Times.
10.20 am: Thousands of farmers from Maharashtra on Monday left for Delhi to join the ongoing protests against the new farm laws, reported PTI.
10.17 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to release the next installment of PM-Kisan, the direct cash transfer scheme for farmers, reports Hindustan Times, citing the Union agriculture ministry. Payments worth Rs 18,000 crore will be made to farmers, and the prime minister will also chat with some of them virtually.
7.50 am: Farmers protesting against the farm laws on Jaipur-Delhi highway in Alwar’s Shahjahapur on Monday accused the Centre of not looking into their demands even though it was a matter of their livelihood, reports The Times of India.
What are the three farm laws?
The Parliament passed three ordinances – Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Assurance and Farm Service Ordinance 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 – in September. They were signed into laws by President Ram Nath Kovind on September 27.
Taken together, the three legislations loosen regulations on the sale, pricing and storage of agricultural produce. They allow farmers to sell outside mandis notified by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee. They enable contract farming through deals with private sector companies. They take food items like cereals and pulses off the list of essential commodities, lifting stock limits on such produce.
Farmers and traders have alleged that the government wants to discontinue the minimum support price regime in the name of reforms. They fear that the laws will leave them at the mercy of corporate powers. The government has maintained that farm laws will bring farmers better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture.
The government claims the new laws would give farmers the freedom to sell in the open market. But farmers say the laws will weaken the minimum support price mechanism under which the government buys agricultural produce, leave farmers to the mercy of market forces and threaten food security.
Most Opposition parties and farmers’ organisations across the country have strongly opposed the bills. The Shiromani Akali Dal, one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s oldest allies, pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance in protest against these bills. Opposition parties have also urged President Ram Nath Kovind to ask the government to accept farmers’ demands.
7.40 am: Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday said the Centre was trying to tire out farmers by starting discussions from the very beginning again, reports PTI. “This is a futile exercise when farmer organisations have already rejected three agriculture laws and want them repealed,” he added.
7.30 am: Farm union leaders accused the Centre of wasting their time with its invite to discuss concerns over the new farm laws, and said they would meet on Tuesday, reports The Indian Express.
Here’s what happened on Monday:
- Farm leaders on Monday said they were always ready for dialogue as long as there was some “concrete solution”. They added that a letter from the Centre on Sunday only sought a date for the next round of talks.
- The Kerala government decided to convene a special Assembly session on December 23 to reject the three farm laws.
- Social media giant Facebook clarified that it temporarily blocked a page linked to the ongoing farmers’ protest because its automated system flagged it as spam due to increased activity.
- The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), the biggest independent organisation behind the farmers’ protests, has been asked by a central agency to submit its registration details that allow it to receive foreign funds. On December 6, the association had made a public appeal for financial help to go ahead with the protests.