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Round 2 of talks ends in deadlock, farmers’ Delhi march on
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced that more than 200 farmer unions would head to the national capital to press the Centre to accept their demands, including the enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) for crops
The meeting of two Union ministers with farmer leaders to dissuade them from their February 13 ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest ended in a deadlock on Monday with the protesters announcing that their Capital march was on.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced that more than 200 farmer unions would head to the national capital to press the Centre to accept their demands, including the enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
Union ministers, including food and consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal and agriculture minister Arjun Munda, held the second round of talks with the farmer leaders at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 in Chandigarh. Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher, among others, were part of the meeting, which began around 6:30 pm.
Emerging from the marathon meeting that ended after five hours, Pandher told reporters: “The Centre doesn’t look serious to meet our demands. They are just trying to buy time by giving us false assurances. .... Tomorrow, we will march towards Delhi at 10 am.”
“We held a long discussion with them and we discussed every issue.... Our effort was to avoid any confrontation. We wanted the issue to be resolved through dialogue with them. Had the government offered anything to us, then we could have reconsidered our agitation,” he added.
Dalewal said: “We waited for more than two years, after the protest on Delhi borders were called off, for the government to accept our demands but nothing has happened, forcing us to again resort to such drastic steps. We are left with no option now. The government can call us for talks but our plan for Delhi chalo march stands unchanged.”
According to people privy to the meeting, a consensus was reached between two on certain issues, including withdrawal of cases registered against farmers during the 2020-21 agitation against now-repealed three agricultural laws. The Centre also agreed to a compensation for those killed during the 2021 Lakhimpur violence in which Ashish Mishra, son of MoS Ajay Mishra, is the key accused.
The sticking points, however, remain the legal guarantee on MSP as recommended by the MS Swaminathan commission in 2005 and waiver on farm loans across the country.
Union minister Munda said the government is open to another round of talks with the farmers. “We offered to set up a panel on MSP. But they did not accept it,” he added.
The first meeting with the Union ministers, held on February 8, had also ended in a stalemate.
Punjab cabinet minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who also attended the meeting, said the state government stands with the farmers.
Besides a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), the farmers are also demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstate the Land Acquisition Act 2013, withdraw from the World Trade Organisation, compensation for families of farmers died during the previous agitation, among others.
Massive deployment of police and paramilitary personnel besides multi-layered barricading have been made to seal the national capital borders at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur to prevent the protesting farmers from entering the city on Tuesday.
While the focus is on thwarting any unlawful congregation between Feb 13 and Feb 15, there are apprehensions that attempts may be made after that as well in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. A gathering on the lines of protests of 2021 is being anticipated and cops have been asked to take appropriate measures to stop the groups from entering Delhi.
Authorities in Haryana have fortified the state’s borders with Punjab at many places in Ambala, Jind, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra and Sirsa using concrete blocks, iron nails and barbed wire to scuttle the proposed march.
The Haryana government has also imposed restrictions under Section 144 of the CrPC in as many as 15 districts, prohibiting the assembly of five or more people and banning any kind of demonstration or march with tractor-trolleys.
Earlier, Pandher said a convoy of tractor-trailers set out in the morning from Beas in Amritsar to assemble in Fatehgarh Sahib district.
Many farmers from Moga, Bathinda and Jalandhar districts have also started from their villages to join the march.
SKM (Non-Political) leader Dallewal said tractor-trolleys will assemble at Fatehgarh Sahib district and Mehlan Chowk in Sangrur on Monday evening.
The police are also using drones to keep a tight vigil at border points, an official said, adding that they are fully prepared to deal with any law and order situation.
The Haryana Police and the Chandigarh Police have already issued traffic advisories, asking commuters to take alternative routes.
Ahead of the meeting with Union ministers, farmers’ leader Dallewal alleged that many agriculturists, who were coming from other states, including Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, to support the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, have been detained, and sought their release.
Dallewal claimed that several farmers coming from Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, owing allegiance to the SKM, have been detained in Bhopal.
“On one side, they (the Centre) are holding dialogues with us and on the other hand they are detaining our people. Then how will this dialogue take place?” the SKM (Non-Political) leader said.
On the heavy security arrangements at various points of the Haryana-Punjab border, Dallewal said the government’s “nervousness” is visible.
“These are not our demands, these are the government’s commitments,” he said.
A petition was filed in the Punjab and Haryana high court against the sealing of borders and suspension of mobile internet services by the Haryana government in the wake of farmer outfits calling for a protest march to Delhi on February 13.
