A late-night meeting called by Home Minister Amit Shah ended in failure Tuesday as farmer leaders rejected the government’s offer to amend new farm laws, saying they would settle for nothing less than the scrapping of the legislations, while many of them threatened to boycott Wednesday’s scheduled talks with ministers.
The meeting with a select group of 13 leaders followed a four-hour ‘Bharat Bandh’ observed by farmers and trade unions that affected normal life in some states.
At the meeting, Shah requested farmer leaders “to end the agitation and said the government will send a proposal in writing…. Some farmer unions asked why the government did not consult them before bringing these laws. To which, the ministers…said there is no point in looking back,” Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh national president Shiv Kumar Kakka said.
Farmer leaders have been firm on their demand for repeal of three new farm laws enacted in September. “We will demand just a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ from Home Minister Amit Shah,” farmer leader Rudru Singh Mansa told reporters earlier in the day at the Singhu border.
Farmer leaders have claimed that the laws will benefit corporates and end the mandi system and the minimum support price (MSP) regime. The government has maintained that it is committed to the welfare of farmers and have presented these laws as major reforms for their benefits.
