Protests will continue until govt accepts all demands, says farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni

NEW DELHI: In a major development, the farmer leaders on Wednesday said that their agitation against the three central farm laws, which were recently repealed by the Parliament after several months of protests, will continue untill the government accepts all of their demands.

"Farmers' protests will continue until after govt accepts all of our demands... It would be problematic for us if we withdraw our protest, but they don't take back the cases. Govt should announce a timeline for the withdrawal of cases," farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni said in Delhi.

The decision was possibly taken after a meeting of the five-member committee of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) which met here on Wednesday. The committee said that the farmer unions will continue talks with the Centre on all farmer-related issues, including MSP and withdrawal of police cases. 

The SKM also sought clarifications on several points regarding the Home Ministry`s proposal, which urged protesting the farmers to call off their agitation. The SKM leaders also sent back the proposal to the government citing "flaws" and asked for amendments to that.

The SKM members will also meet Union ministers Amit Shah and Narendra Singh Tomar separately to discuss their pending issues later today. The likely discussions with the two ministers will take place hours before the scheduled meeting of the SKM at 2 PM, which is spearheading the movement against three farm laws.

The members of the SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, had on Tuesday called a crucial meeting at the Singhu Border on Wednesday to decide the fate of the agitation.

The farmer leader said that the government's attitude in considering farmers' demands has been ‘positive’ lately and hinted towards a positive decision in connection with the fate of the farmers' movement.

On Tuesday, the SKM had demanded clarification on certain points, in the government's proposal, including on the precondition set for the withdrawal of "fake" cases against farmers.

According to the farmers' body, the government's proposal said that it will form a committee to look into the demand for a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops and the panel will include farmer organisations outside the SKM, government officials and representatives of states.

The SKM members had objected to this and decided to meet again on Wednesday to deliberate on these issues and chalk out the future course of the agitation. Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at the borders of the national capital since November 26 last year to demand repeal of the three farm laws.

On November 29, a bill was passed in Parliament to repeal the three contentious farm laws, one of the main demands of the protesting farmers. But the stalemate continues with the protesters demanding that the government fulfil their other demands that included a legal guarantee on MSP and withdrawal of cases against farmers.