As thousands of farmers protest against the three central farm laws at the Delhi borders, a delegation of 29 peasants from Haryana met Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday, extending their support to the legislations. They even threatened to carry out agitations if those are rolled back.
Bharatiya Kisan Union's (Mann) Haryana state leader Guni Prakash led the delegation and submitted a “letter of support” to Tomar on the three laws passed by the Parliament in September. They demanded that the government should carry on with the legislations.
“We will also protest if the government repeals the laws. We have given a memorandum to all districts,” Prakash told reporters, following the meeting.
He also sought to know why the previous government did not implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission till 2014.
“Everyone has a right to protest. They have, so do we. We are in support of the three laws, but this protest is being led by Leftists and those who are violent,” Prakash said.
The BKU leader claimed that the ongoing protests are no longer a farmers’ movement.
“It has taken a political colour. Farmers will get real freedom through these three laws,” he said.
This was the second group of farmers from Haryana that met Tomar and extended support to the farm laws. The first group had met the minister on December 7.
No breakthrough has been achieved during the six rounds of talks between the Centre and the agitating farmers so far, as the farmers have stuck to their demand for a repeal of the laws, despite the government sending them a draft proposal to amend specific issues without abolishing the legislations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reassured farmers that the Centre is committed to their welfare and the new farm laws were aimed at boosting their income by giving them alternate markets.
However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and scrap the mandis (wholesale markets), leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
