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Open to talks, yet to get invite from Centre, say farm leaders
A day after the death of the 21-year-old Shubh Karan Singh at the Datta Singhwala-Khanauri border, the farmer union leaders, on Thursday, said that they were open to fresh round of talks with the Centre, however, they had not received any invite yet.
A day after the death of the 21-year-old Shubh Karan Singh at the Datta Singhwala-Khanauri border, the farmer union leaders, on Thursday, said that they were open to fresh round of talks with the Centre, however, they had not received any invite yet.
Top farm leaders, including Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, and Amarjeet Singh, visited ailing Jagjit Singh Dallewal at Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala on Thursday.
Talking to the HT, Pandher said that the farm unions were always open to talks, and would consider the invite for the fifth round of talks with the Union government.
“We have not received any invitation for another round of talks with the Union government. If we get an invite, we will consider it only if the agenda of the meeting is a legal guarantee to MSP. We are open to talks,” Pandher said.
The protesters and the Centre have held four rounds of talks and in their last meeting on February 18, the Union government had offered farmers a five-year contract under which the government would buy pulses, maize and cotton at MSP, which the farmers rejected.
Pandher reiterated that the morale of the farmers at both the Shambhu and Khanauri borders was high and their stir will continue.
“The protest is going on very peacefully. We, all the farmer leaders, will hold a meeting on the future course of action,” Pandher said.
He added that the farm leaders would now be visiting Khanauri to assess the situation there. “Only after assessing the situation at Khanauri, where hundreds of farmers were injured, we will be able to take a decision on our next course of action,” Pandher added. As per reports, the farm leaders were close to agreeing to the government’s request for renewed talks on Wednesday when news poured in about a “massive police crackdown” and farmer’s death.
Meanwhile, Dallewal, while addressing the press conference, said that it wouldn’t be appropriate to hold any meeting in the next two days given the death of a youngster. “It (two days) is not the right time to hold any meeting with the Union government, but we will consider the invite as and when it comes,” he said.
