New Delhi—Farm leaders have agreed to attend the talks, a decision taken in an ‘emergency meeting’ held by them in the morning Tuesday. The Centre had invited them for talks late Monday night after Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar met Home Minister Amit Shah, in an attempt to assuage the massive protests that on the outskirts of Delhi.
“The government has not laid down any conditions this time and we are going for the talks. Around 35 representatives will go. Our demands are very clear—repealing of the laws,” Jagmohan Singh, state general secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union(Dakaunda), said, clearing that the demands were non-negotiable. “We will also demand law on MSP. The protests will continue if the government does not agree,” he further said.
Sources, meanwhile, claim that during the meeting to be led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the government will reassert that the new agricultural laws will not be revoked. The farmers also fear that the new law brought into force in September, will deprive them of guaranteed MSP, and the mandi system will be scrapped, thus ending their fixed earning. The government delegation, on the other hand, will reassure them about MSP and the mandis.
