NEW DELHI: In an interesting development after the Bharat Bandh call, farmers’ unions announced that Home Minister Amit Shah has called them for a meeting later on Tuesday evening.
The venue of meeting was changed to ICAR guest house as some union leaders refused to go to Amit Shah’s residence.
Ahead of the December 9 meeting, Home Minister Amit Shah was to meet farmer leaders at 7 pm.
While the farmer leaders say they stand firm on their stance on a “yes or no” from the Central Government on the three Farm Acts, some farmers’ unions from Haryana have extended their support to the laws.
Initially, the government was negotiating with 40 farmers’ organisations but it seems the government has called those who may be open to “middle path”.
Apparently, the government is trying to send the message that it is negotiating with those who have countrywide support on the issue.
Notably yesterday, Haryana farmers had written to Agriculture Minister Tomar declaring support for the three contentious farm laws.
“50,000 farmers from 70,000 IPOs are supporting the three Central laws,” a letter to Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, demanding the “three Acts are not repealed”.
Joginder Singh, president of BKU (Ugrahan), opposed the way ‘selective’ farmer organisations accepted the invitation of talks given by Home Minister Amit Shah.
He said he was not invited for the talks and added that last week, they were also given a similar offer to join the talks alone, which they had rejected and had asked to invite all 32 farmers’ organisations.
He said such actions created confusion among people.
As per sources, the decision to join ‘informal’ talks was not unanimous among the 32 farmers’ organisations. The BKU (Ugrahan) was kept out deliberately.
As many as 14 union leaders, including BKU chief Rakesh Tikait, will meet Amit Shah in the meeting scheduled for the evening.
Rakesh Tikait is a son of well-known late farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, in the western area of Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, farmer leaders slammed the government for treating the “agitation as Punjab-centric and giving it Khalistan hues”.
“We stand firm on our stance regarding the three laws,” they said and added that Amit Shah, who was keeping conditions for talks, is now ready to talk with us.
Rakesh has contested on RLD ticket and is believed to be close to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, a reason why the meeting is being viewed with much interest.
Ahead of the meeting, Narendra Singh Tomar advised “Opposition parties to stop playing politics on the issue related to the welfare of farmers”.
“The Prime Minister is trying his best to bring agriculture on rails and political parties should stop playing politics on the issue,” Tomar said.
It is a very important meeting. Farmers had been demanding a meeting with Shah for long time and it is usually seen that the Home Minister only steps in when there is some concrete in sight.
The earlier give meetings with Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal have ended inconclusively.
Sources say the Centre is ready to take back Air Ordinance and Power Bill and also the one related to the APMC Act.
Farmers, who have been agitating on the Delhi borders since November 26, had given a Bharat Bandh call between 11 am and 3 pm on Tuesday.
Farmer leaders and the Centre are scheduled to hold their next round of talks in New Delhi on December 9.
Farmers, who have been agitating on the Delhi borders since November 26, had given a Bharat Bandh call between 11 am and 3 pm on Tuesday.
Farmer leaders and the Centre are scheduled to hold their next round of talks in New Delhi on December 9.