Farm laws: Centre asks farmers to consider its offer of suspension, no date set for next meeting

10.33 pm: CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury says the government’s assurance of keeping the three farm laws on hold was hollow and questions whether the offer of suspension was because of the Punjab elections.

“Stalemate continues after 11th round of talks due to government’s obduracy,” he says in a tweet. “Gazetted laws can’t be kept suspended. They are enforceable unless repealed. The assurance to keep them on hold is, hence, hollow.”

8.45 pm: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh criticises the Narendra Modi government over the continuing agitation against the farm laws, reports ANI. “Is there a Constitution in this country,” he asks. “Agriculture is a state subject under Schedule 7. Why did Centre change it without discussion in Parliament? They passed it in Lok Sabha as they’d more members. In Rajya Sabha, it was passed in chaos as they sensed things can go wrong.”

6.58 pm: “We should remain hopeful,” says Tomar, according to PTI. “Let us wait till tomorrow to hear farmer unions’ final decision.”

6.47 pm: Tomar adds that some “forces” want the protests to continue and ensure that “no good comes out of it”, reports ANI.

6.44 pm: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar says the discussions with the farmers remained inconclusive “as farmers’ welfare was not at the heart of the talks from the unions’ side”, reports ANI. “Farmers unions said that they only want the repeal of the laws despite the government asking for alternatives,” he adds. “We asked them to reconsider our proposal as it is in the interest of farmers and the country. We asked them to convey their decision tomorrow [Saturday].”

5.59 pm: Surjeet Singh Phul, president of the Punjab unit of Bhartiya Kisan Union, says the government has fixed no date for the next meeting, reports ANI.

5.56 pm: Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar says that there is no problem with the farm laws and the government has offered to suspend them out of respect for the farmers, reports PTI. He thanks the farmers’ union for their cooperation.

5.54 pm: Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee leader SS Pandher says the Centre made them wait for 3.5 hours, according to ANI. “This is an insult to farmers,” says Pandher. The farm union leader adds that one of the Union ministers “asked us to consider the government’s proposal and said that he is ending the process of meetings”. Pandher says: The agitation will continue peacefully.”

5.51 pm: Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait says that the proposed tractor rally will take place on January 26, reports ANI.

5.31 pm: Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait says the government offered to put the implementation of the farm laws on hold for two years, reports ANI. He adds the government told them that the next round of meetings can only take place if farmer unions are ready to accept the proposal.

5.26 pm: Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha says that the Centre does not have the power to keep a law passed by Parliament in abeyance, especially after its rules have been notified. “Such a law can only be repealed,” he tweets.

5.21 pm: Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar says he will take part in a protest in Mumbai to express solidarity with farmers agitating against the farm laws, reports PTI.

5.07 pm: The Centre asks farmers to reconsider its proposal to suspend farm laws for 12-18 months, reports The Indian Express. The farmers, however, stuck to their demand for complete repeal of the laws.

3.56 pm: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait tells PTI: “We conveyed our position clearly to the government that we want a repeal of the laws and not a suspension. The [Union Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar] asked us to reconsider our decision.”

3.55 pm: “We told the government that we will not agree to anything other than the repeal of the laws,” Darshan Pal, a farmer union representative at the meeting with the Centre, tells PTI during a break after the first session. “But the minister asked us to discuss separately again and rethink on the matter and convey the decision.”

3.53 pm: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti says the Centre and protesting farmers should make sure that “stubbornness and ego” do not obstruct the path of settling differences over the new laws, reports PTI.

1.06 pm: Three Union ministers start the eleventh round of talks with representatives of farmer unions, reports PTI.

12.57 pm: Farmers in Karnataka are also planning to hold a tractor rally on Republic Day, The Indian Express reports. Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, the leader of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, says over 10,000 tractors will be a part of the rally.

“Around 25,000 farmers will enter Bengaluru and reach Freedom Park through the main roads of the city via Yeshwanthpur and Malleswaram,” he tells the newspaper. “The parade will be held from Nelamangala to Bengaluru, with farmers arriving in more than 10,000 tractors and other vehicles. The parade is planned to begin soon after the chief minister hoists the national flag,”

12.45 pm: Congress President Sonia Gandhi says the three laws were made in a rush. “It is abundantly clear that the three laws were prepared in haste and Parliament was consciously denied an opportunity for examining in any meaningful details their implications and impacts,” she says.

Gandhi affirms her party’s stand on the protests. “Our position has been very clear from the very beginning: we reject them categorically because they will destroy the foundations of food security that are based on the three pillars of MSP, public procurement and PDS,” she adds.

12.43 pm: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also arrives for the meeting.

12.40 pm: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi accuses the Centre of being insensitive and arrogant in its handling of the farmers’ protest.

Read more: Centre has shown shocking insensitivity, arrogance toward farmers, says Sonia Gandhi

12.33 pm: The farmers reach Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi for the 11th round of talks with the Centre. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar also arrives at the venue.

11.28 am: The top executive body of the Congress will debate the farmers’ protests against the three farm laws today, reports Hindustan Times. Party chief Sonia delivers the opening remarks about the ongoing farm stir. The CWC is likely to demand repeal of the laws.

11.25 am: All India Kisan Sabha General Secretary Hannan Mollah says the Republic Day tractor rally will be held as announced.

10 am: The challenge for democratic political establishment is to learn to engage with social movements like the farmers’ protests, writes Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Surinder S Jodhka.

Read more: Why the government will score a self-goal if it treats farmers like enemies to be defeated

9.45 am: The Punjab government gives Rs 5 lakh each to the families of four farmers from Ludhiana who died during the protests near Delhi, PTI reports.

9.30 am: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren says the Centre is under the misconception that only the farmers of Punjab and Haryana were against the three laws, PTI reports. “Farmers across the country, be it Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Northeast or any other place, have the same sentiment,” he adds.

Soren also says that the agitation will spread to other parts of the country if the government doesn’t handle it in an empathetic manner.

9.15 am: Here are some photos from the Singhu border in Delhi, which is the epicentre of the farmers’ agitation.

9.10 am: The Centre and farmers will hold the 11th round of talks at the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi on Friday. All their previous meetings have failed to resolve the deadlock over the agricultural laws.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been camping out on the outskirts of Delhi for nearly 60 days, demanding the repeal of the three agricultural laws passed in September. 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.

Here are the top updates from Thursday:

1. Farmers rejected the Centre’s proposal to suspend implementation of the three agricultural laws for 1.5 years They remained firm on their demand for a complete rollback of the legislations
2. Meanwhile, talks between farmers and the Delhi Police on Republic Day tractor rally route remained inconclusive. Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said the police want the farmers to take out their tractor rally outside the national capital. “We will do our parade peacefully inside Delhi,” he said.
3. The Supreme Court-appointed panel to help resolve the deadlock over the agricultural laws began holding talks with with 10 farmers’ organisations from eight states.
   
4. A 42-year old farmer from Haryana’s Rohtak district, agitating against the new farm laws at Delhi’s Tikri border, reportedly killed himself by consuming a poisonous substance. He was the fifth protestor to die by suicide.
5. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav said the Opposition alliance in Bihar will hold a Kisan Jagriti Saptaah (farmers awareness week) against the agriculture laws from January 24, birth anniversary of former Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur.