Talks With Centre Fail As Farmers Vow To Continue Stir

ovt invites farmers for another round on dec 3; latter insist talks should focus only on repealing the laws

- Nikita Jain & Piyush Ohrie

NEW DELHI/GURUGRAM: After protesting farmers at the gates of Delhi leveraged their position to force the Centre into early talks on Tuesday over repealing the three new farm laws, the 35 farmer leaders walked out of the high-level meeting disappointed, vowing to continue their movement as the government was unwilling to negotiate with all farmers’ associations.

The talks on Tuesday, which were the fourth session between the Centre and the farmers, failed to end the border deadlock as the supply of essential supplies continued to be hit.

At the meeting called by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal among other high functionaries, the Centre proposed the creation of a committee to hold further panel discussions on the laws, which was flat-out rejected by the farmers.

The farmer leaders were locked in a conference room with the Centre in the three-hour-long meeting, which resulted in no resolution with the government insisting on forming a committee and requesting names of four to five farmers who can represent the protesters.

In addition, it was also learnt that the Centre had run a presentation for the farmers on MSP and Agricultural Produce Market Committees, trying to convince them that the laws were good for them, which many farmers did not take to. Farmer leaders have previously made it clear that they want the talks to only focus on how to repeal the laws.