PM asked to stop his 'litany of lies' - Farmers set repeal-and-enact agenda for December 29 talks

If talks make no headway, the protesters are planning to intensify their protest saying the government would be responsible for this

Farmers shout slogans during Delhi Chalo protest march against the new farm laws, at Singhu border in New Delhi on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020. : PTI

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Anita Joshua   |   TT   |   New Delhi   |    27.12.20 : Done with the government’s obfuscation, farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders have sought to buttonhole the Modi dispensation into discussing the real issues by sending a detailed agenda for the talks they have mooted on December 29.

The proposed agenda lists the modalities for the repeal of the three farm laws and the mechanisms to be adopted to enact a law guaranteeing a minimum support price.

The farmers have asked Narendra Modi to stop his “litany of lies”, saying it brings disrepute not only to the Prime Minister’s Office but also to the country. The farmers have expressed disappointment at the way the government has been trying to mislead the nation with “lies and fabrication of facts”.

If the December 29 talks make no headway, the farmers are planning to intensify their protest. They say the government would be responsible for this.

“If a survey is done of the number of times the Prime Minister lies in a day, it will be found that it is numerous times. This is a blot on the country. The Prime Minister’s Office is the face of the country. If the Prime Minister lies, it damages the image of the country.... We hope the Prime Minister will listen to us and quit lying and find the courage to be honest,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, who heads a faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union in Punjab.

Rajewal was not alone in speaking about the Prime Minister’s “dishonesty” at a media conference held at the Singhu border protest site after the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) had replied to the letter the government had sent on Thursday, which again invited the farmers for talks at a time of their choosing.

Prior to Rajewal, Shiv Kumar Sharma “Kakkaji” — who was formerly associated with the RSS-backed farmers’ union, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, and is now convener of a collective of 62 Madhya Pradesh-based organisations, the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh — too dwelt on how he had never come across a Prime Minister who was “so untruthful”.

As an example, Sharma cited Modi’s repeated claim that his government had implemented the Swaminathan Commission formula for calculating the MSP when the government had actually submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court that this could not be done.

These falsehoods and relentless propaganda against the protesting farmers are vitiating the atmosphere, the SKM said, urging the government to take the initiative to create an atmosphere conducive to talks and an early resolution.

The SKM’s response to the government’s letter too flags this. “We have consistently demanded the repeal of the three Central Farm Acts, whereas the government has distorted our position as if we were asking for amendments to these Acts. If you are sincere about respectfully listening to the farmers, as you say in your letter, the government must not indulge in misinformation about the previous meetings.”

Suggesting the meeting be held on December 29 at 11am, the SKM has presented an agenda, including the sequence in which the issues should be taken up. First are the modalities for the repeal of the three laws, followed by the mechanisms to be adopted to turn a remunerative MSP, as recommended by the National Farmers’ Commission (Swaminathan Commission), into a legally guaranteed entitlement for all farmers and all agricultural commodities.

The other issues on the agenda are amendments to exclude farmers from the penal provisions of the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020, and changes to the Electricity Bill, 2020, to protect their interests.

“If there is no progress at this meeting, the next day we will move with our tractors between the Singhu, Tikri and Shahjahanpur borders, and the responsibility of any inconvenience caused will be solely on the government,” farmer leader Rajinder Singh said.

That the farmers are not hopeful of an early resolution is evident from their call to all Delhi residents to join them at the borders, where they are protesting, on New Year’s Day and eat at the langars as “we will not be able to return home to usher in 2021”.

While this “leaderless” movement of 500 farmer organisations and collectives has by and large been peaceful except when they have had to force their way past police barricades, there is concern about some leaders trying to disrupt the agitation from within.

This was hinted by Ranjit Singh Raju, convener of the Gramin Kisan Mazdoor Samiti, Ganganagar, Rajasthan, when he urged farmers from his state to stick to the Shahjahanpur border with Haryana and not try and join the protest at Tikri.

“The SKM has given Rajasthan the charge of the Shahjahanpur border but some farm leaders are creating problems to weaken the movement,” he told the media while urging people to extend the boycott of Jio, Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture, to Fortune products of the Adani Group.

The farmer unions sought to distance themselves from the severing of power supply to Jio towers in Punjab, insisting that their call was for boycott but people were going further because of the anger against the corporate house that they see as a big beneficiary of the new farm laws.