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All eyes on 9th round of farm talks today: Here’s what you need to know
The agenda of the farmers is to focus the discussions only on ways in which the new laws can be scrapped
The terms of the government’s engagement with tens of thousands of farmers protesting three contentious agricultural laws are in the spotlight again. Farm unions will hold their ninth round of negotiations with the Union government on Friday. Here are 10 key things to know:
1. As far as Friday’s negotiations are concerned, the agenda of the farmers is to focus the discussions only on ways in which the new laws can be scrapped.
2. The government has refused to roll back the pro-reform laws farmers say will hurt their livelihoods.
3. The government is unlikely to commit to a repeal. It has, instead, insisted on knowing specific objections to the Acts. Farmers and the government are therefore not on the same page still.
4. The protesting farm unions have decided not to participate in consultations to be held by a committee proposed by the Supreme Court on January 12 to examine three pro-reform agricultural laws.
5. The top court has also kept the farm laws in abeyance to “assuage the hurt feelings of farmers”.
6. The top court’s intervention has backfired. Farm unions have alleged that the SC-appointed committee is “pro-government” since its members have already publicly praised the laws farmers want repealed.
7. The contentious laws remove restrictions in farm trade, lift constraints on stockpiling under the 1955 Essential Commodities Act, and enable contract farming based on written agreements.
8. Farmers say these changes will leave them at the mercy of big corporations.
9. The Supreme Court’s decision to keep the laws in abeyance appears to have given the government a breather: the laws are now suspended without the government having to act according to terms dictated by farm unions.
10. The farm unions, however, have craftily dodged the Supreme Court’s intervention by declaring that they would only talk to the government. This helps them to press on with their core demand of repealing the laws.
