Farm laws: Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar to join farmers' protest in Mumbai on January 25

10 pm: Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal claims the Supreme Court-appointed committee cannot not play any constructive role in resolving the deadlock between the farmers and the Centre over the farm laws, reports PTI. He also warns that “kisan shakti” has the power to “wipe out” the BJP.

8.53 pm: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar will take part in a farmers’ protest in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan on January 25, PTI reported.

6.37 pm: The Supreme Court -appointed panel member Anil Ghanwat says all experts would keep aside their own ideology and views while consulting various stakeholders about the new farm laws, reports PTI. The panel held its first meeting in New Delhi today. Agricultural economists Ashok Gulati and Pramod Kumar Joshi are the other two members of the panel who were present in the meeting.

5.30 pm: “You are talking about ‘kheti ka khoon’ [the murder of agriculture] but what about bloodbath during the partition?” Javadekar says, in an attack on the Congress, according to ANI. “ Three-thousand Sikhs were burnt alive in Delhi in 1984. Was it not bloodshed?”

5.28 pm: Javadekar alleges that hundreds of thousands of farmers died by suicide under the Congress rule, reports ANI.

5.25 pm: Union minister Prakash Javadekar alleges that the farmers of India are poor “because of the destructive policies” of the Congress-led governments in the past, reports NDTV. His statements came hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi released a booklet on the three farm laws at the party’s headquarters in Delhi.

3.05 pm: The SC-appointed panel has invited farmer unions for discussions on January 21, reports India Today.

2.53 pm: SC-appointed panel member Anil Ghanwat says the committee will take views of farmers, agriculture stakeholders besides central and state governments into consideration, reports PTI.

2.52 pm: Rahul Gandhi says there is only one solution to the farmers’ protest – “Government will have to take back the laws”, reports PTI.

2.50 pm: Anil Ghanwat, a member of the SC-appointed committee, tells PTI: “Biggest challenge before the panel is to convince farmers to speak to us and share. We will make all possible efforts.”

2.46 pm: The Congress party has released a booklet on the three farm laws at the party’s headquarters in Delhi, according to ANI.

2.41 pm: Gandhi adds, reports ANI: “The rice, wheat you [middle class] buy comes at the rate you purchase because of APMC [Agricultural Produce Market Committee] and the agricultural system. This is not an assault on farmers but on the middle class and on every single youngster in the country, who is not able to get a job.”

2.39 pm: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi speaks about the committe formed to deliberate on the farm laws, and says he will not comment on the Supreme Court as “India can see the reality”, reports ANI.

1.41 pm: Congress leader DK Shivakumar says the party will hold a large protest on Wednesday in support of farmers demanding the withdrawal of the farm laws, reports ANI. He says the party demands that the Supreme Court should not stay the law but scrap it.

11.43 am: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will hold a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Delhi on Tuesday and release a booklet on the farm laws, according to ANI.

11.40 am: Police officers from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police hold a meeting with the protesting farmers, ANI reports.

11.36 am: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait says the farmers are not attending the first meeting of the panel formed by the Supreme Court, ANI reports. “Nobody from the agitation approached [the] court.” he says. “Government brought the bill through ordinance, it was tabled in the House. It’ll go back the same route it came from.”

10.12 am: The Supreme Court-appointed committee to resolve the deadlock between the Centre and the protesting farm unions is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Tuesday, reports PTI. “We are going to meet tomorrow,” Anil Ghanwat, who is one of the committee members, said on Monday. “Only members will meet to discuss the terms of reference and decide the future course of action.” The meeting will be held at the Pusa campus in New Delhi.

10.09 am: Delhi’s Singhu and Tikri borders remain completely blocked. However, one-way traffic is allowed at Chilla and Ghazipur borders. “We are maintaining sufficient deployment of security personnel at the border to ensure law and order,” a police officer tells Hindustan Times.

10.05 am: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has hit out at the Centre after the National Investigation Agency issued notices to some farmer union leaders, reports NDTV. “Do these farmers look like secessionists and terrorists?” he asked. “Such arm-twisting tactics will not weaken the resolve of the farmers to fight for their rights and their future.”

The Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party also condemned the notices.

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Farm laws: Farmers refuse to call off tractor march on Republic Day, allege NIA is targeting them

10.03 am: Here are the top updates from Monday:

• The Supreme Court on Monday said that it was up to the Delhi Police to decide on the entry of protesting farmers into the Capital on Republic Day. The court was hearing the Centre’s petition seeking an injunction against the farmers’ proposed tractor rally on that day. The bench noted that it was for the police to take a call on matters of law and order.
• Farmers’ unions protesting the new agricultural legislations on Monday asserted that they had the constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully on Republic Day. They reiterated that they would go ahead with the proposed tractor rally on January 26.
• The government on Monday postponed the tenth round of talks on the new agriculture laws with farmer unions to January 20. The meeting was earlier scheduled to take place at 12 pm on Tuesday at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan.

10 am: Tens of thousands of farmers have been camping out on the outskirts of Delhi for nearly two months. Nine rounds of talks between the government and farmers’ groups have failed to resolve the deadlock. Farmers’ around-the-clock sit-ins in cold weather have already led to some deaths among them.

The farmers believe that the new laws undermine their livelihood and open the path for the corporate sector to dominate agricultural. The government, on the other hand, maintains that the new laws will give farmers more options in selling their produce, lead to better pricing, and free them from unfair monopolies.