Farmers protest: Centre invites protesters for meeting on Wednesday- Govt ignores suggested schedule, sets own time

The Sanyukta Kisan Morcha said the invitation suggests unwillingness to discuss the agenda proposed by farmers’ organisations

Protesting farmers at the Ghazipur border in New Delhi.: Picture by Prem Singh

Anita Joshua   |   TT   |    New Delhi   |   Published 29.12.20  :  The Centre, which offered talks on a day and time of the farmers’ choosing, has invited them to a meeting on Wednesday instead of Tuesday as mooted by the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha last week.

As for the agenda, all that the letter from the Centre states is that issues relating to the three farm laws, procurement under minimum support price, the ordinance on stubble burning and the electricity bill will be discussed.

The letter was attributed to the secretary in the department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers’ welfare in the Union agriculture ministry, Sanjay Agarwal.

Reacting to the invitation, the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha — the banner under which the ongoing agitation is being conducted — said: “The letter of the Government of India indicates that it is being clever with words and not willing to discuss the agenda proposed by farmers’ organisations; this exposes the double-speak of the government.”

The farmers, while suggesting a meeting on Tuesday at 11am, had drawn up the following agenda: modalities for repeal of the three laws; mechanisms to be adopted to make the remunerative MSP recommended by the National Farmers’ Commission (Swaminathan Commission) into a legally guaranteed entitlement for all farmers for all agriculture commodities; amendments to exclude farmers from the penal provisions of the air quality management ordinance; and changes to the electricity bill to protect their interests.

As of now, the farmers plan to go to the meeting. But the government’s decision to ignore the schedule suggested by the farmers is for them added proof of the insincerity with which the administration has dealt with the demands of the farming community.

“Not once but twice the government asked us to suggest a day and time of our choosing for a meeting. But, when we sent our proposal, they shot it down and suggested a time of their own. That too, on a day we called for a tractor rally between Singhu and Tikri on the Delhi-Haryana border and Shahjahanpur on the Rajasthan-Haryana border,” a union leader said.

Keeping its end of the bargain, the core group of the Kisan Morcha believes that the tractor rally should be deferred to December 31 “since we had said that we would do this if the next round of talks made no progress”, said Hannan Mollah.

This will be put up for further discussion before the 40 main organisations collectively decide on the course of action. These 40 organisations are also the ones participating in the negotiations with the government.

The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) – the umbrella organisation of 500 farmer unions and collectives that gave the “Dilli Chalo” call for November 26 and 27 — has rejected defence minister Rajnath Singh’s suggestion that they try out the new farm laws for two years with the assurance that changes can be made after that if necessary.

“His appeal to allow the farm laws to play out for two years is an unfortunate statement from a senior politician. If these laws are allowed to be implemented, there will be nothing to discuss after two years — agriculture, agri-produce marketing and food chain of the nation will by then be firmly in the clutches of crony capitalists and monopolists,” the committee said.

With the farmers convinced that they are being sacrificed for the benefit of corporate groups, the campaign against Jio has taken on a life of its own.

According to a PTI report, more than 1,500 cell towers — some of them common ones used by other service providers too — in Punjab have become non-functional because of the campaign despite appeals by chief minister Amarinder Singh to people not to disrupt the state’s telecom services by targeting the company’s infrastructure.

Member organisations of the Kisan Morcha are issuing appeals to the people to stop forcibly shutting down operations in cell towers, fearing the vandalism could come in handy for the government to discredit and malign the movement.

“Our call was only to boycott Jio products; not force anyone to give up any service. Look how peacefully the farmers have been protesting at Delhi’s borders for a month now. We do not approve of the vandalism,” Mollah said.