The government and the protesting farmers continued to stare each other down in their seventh round of negotiations on the three contentious farm laws on Monday, making no headway but agreeing to meet again on Friday.
Only too aware of the government’s strategy to try to wear them down — particularly in the face of a severe winter and heavy showers that have drenched their tents at the borders of Delhi and strained their resources — the farmer union leaders said they were even more forceful in their articulation on Monday, their resolve strengthened by the sacrifices the farming community was making to get the laws repealed.
“You think we enjoy sitting out in the cold and in the rain for days on end?” a union leader asked, pointing to the growing list of farmers who have died during the protest. Around 60 farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders have lost their lives in the past month.
Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar once again tried to peddle amendments as the solution to the farmers’ grievances on the three laws rushed through Parliament in September without consultation, but the farmer leaders refused. They said they represented not just the organisations they led but the 450-plus unions and collectives in the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha and thousands of other farmers across the country.
The government’s attempt to discuss the laws clause by clause was firmly rejected by the union leaders, who asserted there was no point going through the exercise again.
“Finally, the ministers said they would have further consultations within the government and revert on Friday,” said Kavita Kurunganti of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch.
The farmers have lobbed the issue back into the government’s court, making it clear there is no question of going back on their demand for repeal of the laws and insisting there is no point discussing a law on minimum support price without first repealing the three laws. “The only alternative to repeal is repeal,” said Hannan Mollah of the All India Kisan Sabha.
With voices from the government ecosystem arguing that repealing the three laws would have a cascading effect on other legislation, the farmer union leaders said this was not a burden for the farming community to carry.
“The government should have weighed the consequences of forcing a law on the farming community without discussion,” a union leader said.
At the meeting, the union leaders pointed to the Narendra Modi government’s reply to an RTI query seeking details of the consultations held with farmer groups before the enactment of the three laws. The department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers’ welfare — the department in the agriculture ministry that has been liaising with the farmer unions through the protest — had in its reply said it “does not hold any record in this matter”.
The government had earlier claimed that consultations had been held with “lakhs of farmers” before enacting the three laws.
Tomar had in an online interaction with farmers said that such reforms had been under consideration for long. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said last month that “a total of 1.37 lakh webinars and trainings were conducted since June 2020 where 92.42 lakh farmers participated”.
On Monday, the government sought to soften the union leaders by easily conceding their demand that the meeting begin with a homage to the farmers who have died protesting. But coming as it did a day after Haryana police fired tear gas and used chilli powder to disperse farmers trying to join the protest at Delhi’s borders, the gesture did not cut much ice.