Farmers’ protest at the entry points of Delhi will continue as the third meeting between the representatives of 35 farmers’ unions and the government on Tuesday remained inconclusive, with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar conveying to protesting farmers to come with clause-by-clause objections to the new farm laws so that their concerns could be addressed. The fourth round of the meeting will take place on 3 December.
The meeting lasted for three-and-a-half hours and was attended by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goel and MoS Commerce Som Prakash, along with representatives from 35 farmers’ unions.
The tone of the meeting was set before it began when Roldu Singh Mansa of Punjab Kisan Union said that the talks will only succeed “when the government accept our demands. We cannot go back to our people without the government accepting our demands. They trust us and we can’t let them down. You would remember Longowal. You would also know what happened to him once he went back after signing an agreement with the government.”
The sentiment continued throughout the meeting as the government’s proposal of constituting a committee of experts, farmers and government representatives to look into the farm laws, was unanimously rejected by the farmers.
After the meeting, Kripa Singh of Kisan Bachao Morcha said that the government came unprepared for the meeting and “till they agree to our demands, protests will continue. The government is not serious about the talks or finding solutions. They just want to show the world that they are talking to us and trying their level best. We won’t let the government get away with this till our demands are met.”
farmers After the meeting, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the meeting was good and “a lot of understanding has been developed towards each other. We have decided to have a fourth round of talks. They will also come with their issues and will discuss it again. We thought that a small group should be formed to look into the issue, but the unions said that the government should talk to all unions.
The government has no objection to it. We would want farmers to call off their protest and come for talks but this depends on the farmers.” This third round of talks came in the backdrop of hectic parleys between the top government ministers and BJP president J.P. Nadda over the last three days.
. At 11 am on Tuesday, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Railways minister Piysh Goel, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and MoS Commerce Som Prakash met at Nadda’s residence for close to two hours to discuss the situation before the meeting. On Monday, Tomar had met Shah for 40 minutes.