Thirty-one farmers unions in Punjab on Tuesday agreed to hold talks with the Centre to discuss the new farm laws.
These Unions, who had shown historic solidarity against the controversial agriculture laws passed by Parliament last month, however vowed to continue their protests against the new farm laws.
While representatives of 29 organisations met here on Tuesday and decided to hold discussions with the Centre (on their invitation), Bharatiya Kisan Union BKU (BKU) Ekta Ugrahan—the largest farmer Union, which has been holding separate protests, in coordination with these other unions, too, announced yesterday that they will be going for talks with the Union government’s agriculture secretary.
The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee is the only organisation now which has decided not to participate in the talks.
The farmers” organisations, whose agitation against the laws has disrupted rail traffic and severely impacted coal supply to thermal power plants in Punjab, had last week rejected the Centre’s invitation to participate in a “conference to address their concerns” on 8 October. Interestingly, the leadership of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) decided to change their protest tactics— they lifted their dharnas from the railway tracks and instead decided to concentrate their energies and resources on dharnas outside the houses of BJP leaders.
“Every other union is already holding protest on the rail tracks, so we decided to intensify protests outside the residences of BJP leaders in Punjab,” said Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of the union. The other unions, however, have decided to continue their ‘Rail Roko protests’, besides protesting outside the residences of BJP leaders, said Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of BKU Rajewal.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Punjab government comprising of Ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhbinder Sarkaria, met the representatives of these 29 Unions, and assured them that a special Assembly session is being convened by the state government next week, to reject the Agriculture Laws passed by the Centre. The ministers are learnt to have asked the farmers to lift the ‘Rail Roko strike’, but they refused to relent.
Farmers in Punjab have been demanding that the three laws passed by Parliament recently be repealed.
Farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws will pave a way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporates.