Dilli Chalo | Dilli Chalo | Centre will not repeal farm legal guidelines, will send written proposal on December 9

Union Home Minister Amit Shah informed a choose group of farmers’ leaders late on Tuesday that the Centre would not repeal the three contentious farm sector legal guidelines on a day that noticed nationwide highway blockades and peaceable protests in assist of the demand for a rollback of the legislations.

Mr. Shah mentioned the Centre will give a written proposal of the amendments it’s keen to make to the three legal guidelines by Wednesday morning, All India Kisan Sabha chief Hannan Mollah informed journalists after the assembly.

As a results of assembly, the sixth spherical of talks with all of the farmers’ unions will not be held on Wednesday as scheduled, he added. In the meantime, farmer teams have been requested to think about the Centre’s proposals. 

Mr. Mollah reiterated that farmers teams are demanding a full repeal of the legal guidelines and will not be content material with amendments.

However, it’s not identified if all of the teams are nonetheless holding that place. Mr. Shah met with 13 farmer leaders. By calling a choose group, some divisions seem to have been created among the many farmer teams. 

The sudden assembly with the Home Minister got here hours after farm unions below the banner of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha claimed that greater than 50 lakh individuals participated within the Bharat Bandh name at 20,000 areas throughout the nation. At least 25 political events supported the bandh, together with commerce unions, retail and transport associations and {many professional} our bodies.

The bandh affected regular life throughout giant components of northern India, particularly Punjab, in addition to Odisha, and the southern States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Large numbers of protestors and leaders, together with a number of legislators, had been detained through the day, each pre-emptively and through the agitation. Major highways round Delhi, and in components of northern India had been blocked in a chakka jam till 3 p.m.

At a press convention on the Singhu border, farmer leaders claimed success.

“It is very clear today that the struggle is not just restricted to Punjab, and not just restricted to farmers. This has become a struggle across all sections of society in India. The government of India now knows it doesn’t have a way out,” mentioned Gurnam Singh Chaduni, chief of one of many greatest factions of the Bharatiya Kisan Union in Haryana. 

The Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, which had two leaders within the assembly, mentioned the written proposal would cowl the Centre’s stand on all the farmers’ calls for, and not solely on amendments to the legal guidelines.

“After receiving the government’s written proposal, the farmer leaders will meet and formulate their own strategy. Farmer leaders are adamant on all our demands: repealing the three agricultural laws, enforcing an MSP guarantee law, withdrawal of the Electricity Bill, 2020 and the withdrawal of fines for stubble burning,” mentioned RKMS spokesperson Abhimanyu Kohar.

So far, the official talks have taken place at Vigyan Bhavan, led by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on the federal government facet. On the farmers’ facet, the delegation has included representatives from all 32 of the Punjab unions, plus a couple of leaders from different areas and nationwide outfits. The farmers’ alliance have beforehand rejected the federal government’s suggestion to kind a smaller group to debate the main points of the three legal guidelines.

However, on Tuesday, Mr. Shah reached out to the farmers teams suggesting an (*9*) or “unofficial” assembly with 13-14 representatives at his residence at 7 pm, some leaders informed The Puucho. The Punjab unions chosen 9 leaders, to be accompanied by Rakesh Tikait of a Bharatiya Kisan Union faction in Uttar Pradesh, Gurnam Singh Chaduni of one other BKU faction in Haryana, Shiv Kumar Kakkaji of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh and Hannan Mollah of the All India Kisan Sabha.

At the final minute, the venue was shifted to the National Agricultural Science Complex, Pusa, and the assembly started after 8 pm. Some leaders met Mr. Shah at his residence earlier than the assembly started, in response to some sources. One chief, Rudru Singh Mansa was disgruntled by the venue change, and initially headed again to the Singhu border, earlier than being satisfied to attend the assembly.

Joginder Singh, president of BKU-Ugrahan, who was not included within the assembly, mentioned the unions ought to not have gone to fulfill Mr. Shah individually because the transfer would create “misunderstanding among struggling people.”

He added that BKU-Ugrahan had beforehand been approached twice for separate talks with the federal government, however they refused the provide. “We had always stuck to the demand that all organisations should be invited jointly. Our organisation is sticking to the demand of withdrawal of all the anti-farmer laws, to enact a law for procurement of all farm produce at Minimum Support Price throughout the country and strengthen the Public Distribution System,” he mentioned. He added that struggling farmers shall not settle for something lower than these calls for.