As the farmers’ protest rages across the Delhi borders, sources claim that BJP ministers are trying to organise unconditional talks with the protestors. Meanwhile, while speaking at Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended the three controversial farm laws adding that the farmers are “misguided.”
Various sources report that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had met Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, and BJP chief JP Nadda to discuss the issue on separate occasions. At the same time, Shah and Tomar had put forward an offer of conversation if the protestors moved to Burari ground in Delhi. However, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee leaders refused the offer and remained at the Singhu and Tikri border. They had also asked those who went to Burari to return.
The farmers’ decision to remain politically choked Delhi, as the protestors have now blocked five entryways to the capital. It has forced the Union Home Minister to offer an “unconditional talk offer,” which the farmers have rejected. They have asked Shah what the home ministry has to do with their struggle. They have demanded that that Centre, and those at the highest political level, name and authorise a committee comprising relevant ministers to communicate with them.
In a statement released by the committee, they say, “The AIKSCC has demanded that the government should stop dealing with the issue from the prism of intelligence agencies and home ministry. The government got these statutes rammed through Parliament, and farmers expect a political response, from the highest levels of the government. Its attempt to invoke the Home Ministry only acts as a threat to farmers, rather than arouse confidence in its sincerity.”
Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi has defended the three farm laws, which the farmers want repealed. It is also while his colleagues at the capital are desperately trying to find a workaround. Modi said, “I know that decades of deception have placed apprehension on the farmers’ minds. I want to say this from the banks of Mother Ganga: we are not working with an intention to deceive. Our intentions are as holy as the water of River Ganga.” This seems to be a reply to the many accusations, especially from the farmers, that the three farm laws are to benefit the corporates.
The PM added that the three new farm laws are for the benefit of the farmers, unlike the schemes of the previous government, such as the loan waiver programmes. Modi said that the loan waiver helped none, unlike his government’s three schemes. He reiterated that the criticism against the farm laws stems from the “propaganda spread by the opposition”.
