On a day the Supreme Court-appointed panel, formed to resolve issues and end the deadlock over between the government and farmer unions over the three contentious farm laws, is scheduled to meet for the first time, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Tuesday said the farmer unions will not attend the meeting, adding that the ordinance through which the laws were brought will go back the “same route it came from.”
“We don’t know, we’re not going to attend the meeting. Nobody from the agitation approached the court. Govt brought the Bill through Ordinance, it was tabled in the House. It’ll go back the same route it came from,” Rakesh Tikait, the BKU spokesperson was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. Tikait is in the group of over 40 farmer leaders which has held nine rounds of talks with the government thus far.
Last week, the Supreme Court put on hold the implementation of the laws till further orders and set up a four-member committee to oversee the negotiations. However, the farmers, while welcoming the stay, rejected the committee, saying nobody from the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmer unions representing the protesting farmers, had approached court in this regard. They also pointed out that all four members had publicly backed the three laws. Following this, Bhupinder Singh Mann, one of the four members, announced his decision to step down from the panel.
Ashok Gulati, PK Joshi and Anil Ghanwat are the other three members of the panel. On Saturday, another farmers’ group, BKU (Lokshakti) filed an affidavit in the top court, seeking the trio’s removal from the committee.
Tuesday marks the 55th day of the farmers’ protest on various borders of Delhi. The tenth round of talks was scheduled to take place on the day but on Monday, the government postponed it by a day. It will now take place on January 20.
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