Farmers’ union threatens to block all entry points to Delhi, demands Cabinet Committee for talks; Shah assures high-level team of Ministers for dialogue if farmers shift to Burari
A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held out an olive branch to farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders for four days against the new farm laws for talks anytime provided they move to the Burari ground, the farmers on Sunday rejected Shah’s offer and said they will not accept any conditional dialogue and threatened to block all five entry points to the national Capital.
The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) on Sunday demanded the Centre to name and authorise a Cabinet committee or a group of Ministers for future discussions with the farmers.
“The condition laid down by Shah is not acceptable to us. We will not hold any conditional talks. We reject the Government’s offer. The blockade will not end. We will block all five entry point to Delhi… The condition put for talks is an insult to farmers.
“We will never go to Burari. It is not a park but an open jail,” Surjeet S Phul, Bhartiya Kisan Union’s Punjab president, told reporters.
Reacting to their demands, the Centre on Sunday once again appealed to the farmers to shift to a ground in Delhi’s Burari and said a high-level team of Union Ministers is ready to hold talks with them at the Capital’s Vigyan Bhavan once they move to the designated place.
Later in the evening, Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar held deliberations over the farmers’ protest against the three Central farm laws with BJP president JP Nadda.
As the standoff showed no signs of easing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi again batted for the new laws in his monthly radio address. Shah on Sunday said they were meant for the welfare of farmers and called their agitation apolitical.
Speaking to reporters, he said, “The new farm laws are meant for the welfare of farmers. After a long time the farmer is going to come out of a locked system. Whoever wants to oppose it politically let them do it. I have never said the farmers protest is political and would never say (that it is political).”
The Home Ministry too assured the farmers’ organisations that a high-level team of Union Ministers will talk to them once the protesters move to the designated site.
A meeting of over 30 farmer groups was held to discuss Shah’s offer for talks before the scheduled date of December 3 once they move to Burari in the city, but thousands of protesters refused to budge and prepared for spending another night in the cold at the Singhu and Tikri border points. Their representatives said Shah’s condition that they shift the protest is not acceptable and claimed Burari ground is an “open jail”.
Opposition parties too pressed the Government to initiate an unconditional dialogue with the farmers.
Farmers who had reached Nirankarai Samagam Ground in Burari on Saturday also continued their protest there.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in a letter to 32 farmers organisations sent on Saturday cited the cold conditions and the Covid-19 outbreak and said the farmers should move to the Burari ground where adequate facilities have been made for them. “As soon as you shift to the ground at Burari, the very next day a high-level committee of Union Ministers will hold talks at Vigyan Bhavan with the representatives of all farmers unions, with whom dialogue had taken place earlier,” he said in the letter.
The Central Government has reached out to the farmers underscoring its willingness to hold talks with them. It has also asserted that concerns expressed by some farm bodies about the new laws are misplaced, asserting that existing support measures like the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and state-run ‘mandis’ will remain in place.
Farmer leaders, however, claimed that more protesters will join them from Haryana and Punjab.
Several Khaps or caste councils from Haryana have extended support to the farmers’ ongoing protest and will march towards the national Capital.
Raising slogans against the government, the farmers staged protests amid heavy police presence on the Delhi borders. The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) provided food to the agitating farmers.
A war of words has also broken out between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar over the movement of protesting farmers to Delhi.
Singh and his Congress party have supported the farmers’ agitation and criticised the Khattar Government which had tried to stop the protesters from crossing the BJP-ruled Haryana to enter Delhi.
Khattar said on Sunday he would hold Amarinder responsible if farmers’ gathering on the state’s borders with Delhi leads to an aggravation of the Covid-19 situation in the State.
He alleged that it was programme sponsored by the Congress and the Punjab Government.
The Congress, which has been targeting the Government over the farm laws issue, said the insistence on support to the legislations shows that the Government is “drunk with power”.
“Those who are still defending the black farm laws, what solution will they find in favour of farmers?” party leader Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, adding that, “Ab hogi (now there will be) #KisaanKiBaat”.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the Centre to immediately and unconditionally hold talks with the farmers.
The protesting farmers have come prepared for a long haul, their vehicles loaded with rations, utensils, quilts and blankets for the cold and equipped with even charging points for their phones.
“In any situation, we will not call off the protest till our demands are met,” Brij Singh, one of the farmers at Singhu border, said.
Gaurav Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North), said they are allowing vehicles carrying food and other necessities for farmers to pass.
“Burari DDA ground has already been designated as the protest site and when they want to move, we will be facilitating their movement,” he said.
On Friday, police used teargas shells, water cannons and multi-layer barriers to block the protesters.
Some protesters pelted stones and broke barricades.
No untoward incident was reported on Saturday. But the tension persisted with restless crowds milling around the city’s edges and beyond and settling down from another night out in the cold.
Monday, 30 November 2020 | Shekhar Singh| New Delhi
