Farmers reject Centre's proposal to suspend farm laws, insist on repeal

Agitating farmers on Thursday rejected the Modi government’s offer to suspend the three farm laws for 18 months and insisted on complete rollback of the agricultural reforms, dashing hopes for an end to the 58-day protests.

The outright rejection of the government offer came after marathon meetings of the farmers’ unions on the eve of the 11th round of talks with the ministerial panel on Friday.

“In a full general body meeting of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha on Thursday, the proposal put forth by the government on Wednesday was rejected,” Darshan Pal, leader of the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said.

Pal said that full repeal of the three central farm laws and enacting a legislation for remunerative MSP for all farmers remained the pending demands of the movement.

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Indication of the tough line taken by the farmers was available on Thursday afternoon when the SKM rejected suggestions by the Delhi Police to change the route of the Kisan Parade planned for Republic Day and refrain from entering the national capital.

“They wanted us to hold the tractor rally outside Delhi, but we will go ahead as planned,” Pal told reporters after meeting with Delhi Police officers.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee on the farm laws began the consultation process by interacting with 10 farmers’ organisations from eight states.

The apex Court had on January 11 suspended the implementation of the three laws till further orders and asked the committee to submit its report within two months.

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Ten farmer organisations from Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh participated in discussions with committee members, a statement from the three-member committee said.

On Wednesday during the 10th round of talks with the farmers, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had offered to suspend implementation of the farm laws for up to 18 months and continue discussions on addressing their concerns regarding the reforms.