Union leaders do not appear ready to give up on their core demands repeal of laws and legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) and some of them feel that their protests are acquiring a larger dimension. The unions will in any case want to wait to see how opposition parties take up the stir in the Budget session, which begins on Friday.
The likely stand of the Central government, which has so far been at pains to signal its flexibility to amend the laws short of repeal was not clear though BJP leaders were taken aback by the violence. The government and BJP offered no word on the violence, with sources saying the priority was to restore law and order. The government seemed to expect the televised events to hurt the protest, while the proceedings in the Supreme Court, which had asked if the rally would be peaceful, could also see the Centre spelling out its stand.
India’s Invisible Women Farmers
The farmers’ protests outside New Delhi have cast a spotlight on a traditionally overlooked group: the women who keep India’s farms running.
By
January 14, 2021
Woman farmer Sohajdeep Kaur, 40, center, with others shout slogans as they block a highway in protest against new farm laws at the Delhi-Haryana state border, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020.
Credit: AP Photo/Manish Swarup
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At Tikri village, bordering the western fringes of India’s national capital New Delhi, thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating since November 26. Their target: the government’s new farm laws, which they view as “pro-corporate” and “exploitative” toward Indian farmers.
The farmer unions on Thursday said there was no alternative to repeal of the new farm laws, responding to the government’s call to come up with an option short of complete withdrawal.
Simultaneously, upset with the “repression” of farmers in BJP-ruled states, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) decided to counter this with a bigger mobilisation.
“The Government of India’s appeal to the farmer leaders to suggest an alternative to repeal of the three acts is an impossibility as the central government itself has thrust these laws over the people undemocratically,” the AIKSCC’s working group said a day after 40 farmer unions and collectives had met government interlocutors.
Farmers sitting on a protest against the new farm laws at Singhu Border in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI Photo)
NEW DELHI: A day after talks over new agri laws registered some progress, farm unions on Thursday said the Centre’s appeal to them to suggest an alternative to repeal of the laws wasn’t feasible.
“Unless the laws are scrapped, there’s no scope to discuss pro-farmer changes in mandis and processes for ensuring doubling of farmers’ income,” said AIKSCC, umbrella body of the unions. They urged the Centre “to stop being rigid and not indulge in semantics”.
It appears to be a posturing exercise on part of the farmers ahead of the next round of talks on January 4 where the main sticking points are up for discussion.
Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar along with Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal and MoS commerce and industry Som Prakash speak to media after meeting with farmers unions leaders over farm laws, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)
NEW DELHI/BATHINDA: The Centre and farm unions opposed to the new agri laws narrowed their differences with the former agreeing to decriminalise stubble-burning and shelve the proposed electricity amendment bill even though the “core” issues repeal of the laws and legal guarantee for higher MSP raised by the unions remain unresolved.
The renewed discussions between 41 farm unions saw some progress despite the bleak optics that preceded the talks. Importantly, the two sides agreed to remain engaged with the next round of talks scheduled on January 4.