Govt says it cannot and will not repeal farm laws
Staff Reporter / NEW DELHI
The eighth round of talks between the Government and the farmers ended without an agreement today as both sides remained adamant on their stands. While farmers reasserted their demand to repeal farm laws and a legal guarantee for minimum support price procurement system, the government clearly said that it ‘cannot and will not’ repeal farm laws.
Farmers are protesting against the three farm laws at Delhi borders for more than a month.
The talks, held in Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi, continued for three hours but at the end, two sides made little headway. According to sources, the discussion between farmers and government officials had become heated at one point and some farmers had also raised objections to some comments made by Punjab BJP leader about the farmers’ protest. During the half-hour lunch break, the farmers decided not to eat food or take tea. They did not even speak to anyone.
Meanwhile, the government proposed that both parties could abide by the Supreme Court’s verdict in the matter. If the SC says the farm laws are illegal then the government will withdraw them, if they are legal, the farmers must end their protest. But the farmers have also rejected this proposal.
The next round has been proposed on January 15 with the government hoping for some resolution at the January 11 Supreme Court hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the three agricultural laws.
Hardening their stance, unions have also made it clear that “whatever the courts might order they are not going to budge until they secure repeal of the laws and discussion on MSP moves further”.
They have already given a deadline of January 26, the day when they “march into Delhi”. “It is best to leave this to the Supreme Court to decide,” Kavitha Kuruganti of the Mahila Kisan Adikar Manch said quoting Tomar at the meeting, terming today’s proceedings as a “complete breakdown of talks”.
“It is a very sad day for Indian democracy that in middle of talks an elected government, which has constantly been cheating the farmers, now says let us get this resolved through the Supreme Court. The court has already looked at the eviction-related issue and said that it is the democratic right of farmers to protest and passed orders on that,” she said.
Leaders said only “one point was taken up” at the meeting today. While Tomar kept saying they should discuss the three Acts, unions kept insisting the Bills be taken back.
There was no discussion on MSP as leaders made their intentions clear with slogans like ‘ya jitenge ya marenga’ (either we will die or win) and ‘Bill wapsi ghar wapsi’.
They also slammed Punjab BJP leaders for giving ‘gaalis’ (abusing) to farmers and maligning the agitation. “We are not a political party. Only if you return the Bills will we go back,” they said.
After Tomar insisted that several unions were agreeable to the laws, BKU leader Balbir Singh Rajewal told him “agriculture was a state subject, still the Centre made laws on it”.
“It is an established fact that you cannot interfere on the subject of agriculture. But you get your secretary and your joint secretary to work on it, and they keep coming up with excuses (to interfere). I have a list of cases in which the Supreme Court’s full Bench has ruled that the Central government cannot interfere on the subject,” Rajewal said.
Apart from Tomar, Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Som Parkash, who is from Punjab, were also present at the talks with the unions.
Meanwhile, Tomar played down his meeting with religious leader Baba Lakha Singh, a head of the Nanaksar Sikh sect, saying that the government did not approach him for mediation with farmers.