Seventh round of talks between Centre, farmers today

As the seventh round of talks between the PM Narendra Modi's government and protesting farmer unions is due to take place on Monday, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday and discussed the government strategy to resolve the current crisis at the earliest.

Tomar discussed with Singh "all possible options" to find a "middle path" to resolve the crisis, sources added.

Singh, who served as agriculture minister in the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet, has emerged as a key troubleshooter and is working mostly behind the scenes on this issue.

Read | Will burn copies of new farm laws on Lohri: Farmer leaders

Protesting farmers who have been camping at Delhi borders for the last 39 days braving the bone-chilling cold and now rains have threatened to intensify their protest if their two major demands -- repeal of the three new farm laws and legal backing for the minimum support price (MSP) -- are not accepted by the government in the January 4 meeting.

Rains since Saturday night led to waterlogging at the agitation venues, but the unions asserted that "we will not move from here until our demands are met".

After five rounds of inconclusive talks, the government and 40 farmer unions reached some common ground during the sixth round of negotiations on December 30 to resolve protesting farmers' concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning, but the two sides remained deadlocked over the main contentious issues of the repeal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee for MSP.