The protesting farmers on Sunday rejected the Centre's offers of reconciliation, saying they "will not accept any conditional dialogue" and threatened to block all entry points to the national capital. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had, on Saturday, said that a delegation of the farmers has been invited for a discussion on December 3, or as soon as the protesters shift to a ground in New Delhi's Burari. The home ministry too assured the farmers' organisations that a high-level team of Union ministers will talk to them once the protesters move to the designated site.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the issue in his Mann ki Baat radio address. He said these reforms have given the farmers new rights and opportunities and have started mitigating their problems in a short span of time. "Correct information, away from rumours and confusion of any kind is a big strength for people in any field," he said.
A meeting of over 30 farmer groups was held to discuss Shah's offer for talks, but the thousands of protesters refused to budge and prepared for spending another night in the cold at the Singhu and Tikri border points. Their representatives said Shah's condition that they shift the protest is not acceptable and claimed Burari ground is an "open jail". "The condition laid down by [Home Minister Amit] Shah is not acceptable to us. We will not hold any conditional talks. We reject the government's offer. The blockade will not end. We will block all five entry point to Delhi," Surjeet S. Phul, Bhartiya Kisan Union's Punjab president, told reporters.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in a letter to 32 farmers organisations sent on Saturday cited the cold conditions and the COVID-19 outbreak and said the farmers should move to the Burari ground where adequate facilities have been made for them. "As soon as you shift to the ground at Burari, the very next day a high-level committee of Union ministers will hold talks at Vigyan Bhavan with the representatives of all farmers unions, with whom dialogue had taken place earlier," he said in the letter.
Top BJP leaders meet
Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar held deliberations over the farmers' protest against the three central farm laws with BJP president J.P. Nadda late on Sunday evening. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had a few days back said the Centre was ready to hold talks with farmers anytime, and appealed to them to call off their agitation and come for discussion. After the farm reform bills were passed in monsoon session of parliament, Singh on behalf of the government held deliberations with various stakeholders of the farm sector.
Political brouhaha
A war of words has also broken out between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar over the movement of protesting farmers to Delhi. Singh and his Congress party have supported the farmers' agitation and criticised the Khattar government which had tried to stop the protesters from crossing the BJP-ruled Haryana to enter Delhi.
Khattar said on Sunday he would hold Amarinder Singh responsible if farmers' gathering on the state's borders with Delhi leads to an aggravation of the COVID-19 situation in the state. He alleged that it was a programme sponsored by the Congress and the Punjab government.
The Congress, which has been targeting the government over the farm laws issue, said the insistence on support to the legislations shows that the government is "drunk with power". "Those who are still defending the black farm laws, what solution will they find in favour of farmers?" party leader Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the Centre to immediately and unconditionally hold talks with the farmers.
BJP's former ally Shiv Sena said farmers protesting against the Centre's new agri laws are being treated as if they are "terrorists", and it is sad that they are not being allowed to enter Delhi. The government should consider the farmers' demands sympathetically, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.
-Inputs from PTI
