Minister of state for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary has reiterated the Narendra Modi government's offer to hold "clause-by-clause" talks on the three farm laws against which farmers are protesting. Choudhary's comments came before the eight round of talks between Union ministers and farmers' unions, which will begin on Friday afternoon.
Choudhary was quoted by ANI as saying, "A solution will be found when clause-by-clause talks are held with farmers. Government of India is ready to make amendments in the laws. We are hopeful of resolution."
The farmers' unions have been firm on their demand their protests would continue until the government repealed the three laws.
On Thursday, Choudhary told ANI "There are people like Communists who are inciting farmers and don't want peace in the country". Choudhary urged the farmers to be cautious.
"I want to reiterate that these three farm laws are revolutionary. Arthiyas have incited the farmers to sit on protest. They have misled them. We have plans to bring in more reforms like pesticide and seed bills. There was a time when farmers used to get bad pesticide and farmer was at a loss of product gets spoiled. We would ensure that farmers won't go through that and will be insured against losses. Modi government is working to make life better for farmers," Choudhary told ANI.
The latest round of talks to be held at Vigyan Bhavan at 2pm on Friday is crucial as the previous meeting on January 4 remained inconclusive. There was some breakthrough in the sixth round of talks on December 30 when the government conceded to two demands of the agitating farmers pertaining to power subsidy and stubble burning. The previous rounds of talks had failed to make any headway.
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Thursday's tractor rallies were taken out from protest sites near the Singhu, Tikri and the Ghazipur borders and also from Haryana's Rewasan as the unions asserted they would not accept the Centre's offer of amendments to the farm laws.
According to them, these marches were a "rehearsal" for their proposed January 26 "Kisan Parade" to the national capital from different parts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
