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Ministers assure farmers but no breakthrough yet in talks
Union ministers held talks with farm leaders to end week-long protests by Punjab and Haryana farmers, demanding MSP law and other concessions, amid escalating tensions at the Delhi border.
Talks between a delegation of Union ministers and senior farm leaders continued deep into the night on Sunday, amid efforts by interlocutors to snap a week-long agitation by cultivators from Punjab and Haryana, who have made a raft of demands, including a law on minimum support prices (MSP).
Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda — who have been part of all four meetings so far — and Nityanand Rai met a group of senior farmer leaders, including Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarvan Singh Pandher and Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) chief Jagjit Singh Dallewal in Chandigarh. Sunday’s negotiations also included Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
The previous rounds of talks, on February 8, 12 and 15, all ended in deadlocks over similar sticking points.
The farmers have also demanded debt waivers, employment for relatives of people killed during the cultivators’ protest in Delhi between November 2020 and December 2021, compensation for farmers injured in Lakhimpur Kheri in October 2021, and the withdrawal of cases registered against protesting cultivators.
Thousands of farmers have camped at the Punjab-Haryana border since Monday and tried to ram through dense layers of police barricading and head towards Delhi.
Police and security forces have sought to keep the agitators at bay, hurling tear gas shells, firing water cannons and baton-charging protesters to avoid them barrelling through the blockades.
Meanwhile, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella group of 37 farmer unions, on Sunday said it will protest in front of the residences of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Punjab for three days from Tuesday to press the Centre into accepting the farmers’ demands.
Earlier, Dallewal, one of the farmer leaders who has helmed the current round of protests, said the government should meet the protesters’ demands before the model code of conduct comes into force.
“If the government thinks it will continue to hold meetings till the model code is imposed, and then say it cannot do anything as the code is in force… the farmers are not going to return,” he said.
“The government should find a solution to our demands before the model code of conduct comes into force,” Dallewal said.
Meanwhile, several farm leaders held a panchayat in Kurukshetra, Haryana on Sunday with Bharatiya Kisan Union (Charuni) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni and other khaps to chalk out a course of action to lend their support to Punjab’s protesting farmers.
“It was decided that all farmers’ organisations would hold a united protest in support of the agitation,” Charuni said after the panchayat.
Several other decisions have been kept in abeyance for now and will depend on the outcome of the negotiations with the Centre, Charuni said, adding that a four-member panel has been formed to connect all farmers in the National Capital Region (NCR) with those from Delhi.
Another Khap leader who attended the meeting told news agency PTI that farmers will reach Delhi and protest if the talks fail.
Meanwhile, the suspension of internet services has been extended in certain areas of some Punjab districts, including Patiala, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib, till February 24 on the orders of the Union ministry of home affairs.
