Farmers-Centre Meet: 8th Round Of Talks Begins, 2-Minute Of Silence Observed For Protestors Who Lost Lives

The meeting between the Centre and the protesting farmers on two key issues is underway. Agriculture Minister is hopeful for the deadlock to end today.

Image Courtesy: PTI

Farmers' Protest: The talks between farmer unions protesting at the Delhi border and the Centre have begun at Vigyan Bhawan as the agitating farmers have tabled the two key issues again -- the repeal of the three agriculture laws and giving legal status to the minimum support price guarantee. The meeting began with a two-minute silence for those who have died in the agitation, the Union Agriculture Ministry said. This is the 8th round of talks between the centre and the protesting farmers. Farmers and their protesting unions have been on the table with the Agriculture Minister led panel seven times (including today's meet), while Amit Shah had met a smaller delegation of farmers registering their concerns. Despite rains and the ongoing cold wave across North India, farmers agitating against the Centre’s farm laws stood strong at the borders of the national capital and continued their protest for the last 39 days. In the last round of meetings, the Centre said the two sides had come to an understanding on two of the four demands of the farmers - withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill and the penal provisions for stubble burning in the Air Quality Commission Ordinance. The farmers' representatives who attended the last round of meeting on December 30, said the government has indicated that it would not repeal the laws as the process is long and cumbersome Why are the farmers protesting? It is one of the largest strikes in decades witnessed by India as the farmers have continued their sit-in protest for more than 1 and a half months. The farmers are demanding that the Centre should revoke the three contentious laws. The laws essentially change the way India’s farmers do business by creating free markets, as opposed to a network of decades-old, government marketplaces, allowing traders to stockpile essential commodities for future sales and laying down a national framework for contract farming. These laws are the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020. Farmers to intensify the protest if the talks fail With both sides firm on their stances, Monday’s meeting is expected to be a make-or-break one. Ahead of talks Punjab’s farm unions said they would burn copies of the three contentious farm laws on Lohri (January 13) and celebrate January 23—Netaji Subhas Chander Bose’s birth anniversary—as ‘Azad Kisan Diwas’. Upping the ante, Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the platform of farm unions, has said that thousands of farmers will drive into the Capital on their tractors to hold their own Republic Day parade if their demands are not met by January 26. The Republic Day – an event of global importance – is scheduled to be attended by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Farmers lost their lives during protest A 70-year-old farmer, who was part of the agitation against the farm laws at UP Gate in Ghaziabad, allegedly died by suicide in a portable toilet near the protest site on Saturday. Forty-seven people have died so far at various protest sites since the farmers began their agitation against three contentious farm laws passed by Parliament in September last year, national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Rakesh Tikait has said.