With no progress towards ending the gridlock between the farmers’ unions and Modi-led central government, the ninth round of discussion demanding the repeal of the three agriculture laws ended up with farmers concluding ‘120 per cent fail’.
In the first meeting held ever since the Supreme Court-appointed a committee to resolve the deadlock over farm laws, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab were among the panel who held talks with farmers.
While the next meeting will take place on January 19 at 12 pm, leaders of the 40 farmers’ unions refused to hold talks with the SC-appointed committee. ‘We will talk to the central government only. Our demands of repealing of the three farm laws and MSP guarantee remain the same,” said BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait after the talks.
The same day, Bharatiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann, who was one of the four members of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on farm laws, said he is recusing himself from the panel.