What will the farmers do if Centre refuses to repeal contentious farm laws - Details here

NEW DELHI: Farmers’ ongoing protest against the Centre’s contentious farm laws has entered the 20th day on Tuesday (December 14, 2020). While the farmer union leaders continue to demand that the Centre must repeal the controversial farm laws, the government has been maintaining that the three new laws are in the best interest of farmers.

While giving enough indications that the government will possibly not go back on the farm laws, it has repeatedly said that the doors are always open for negotiations to address all issues concerning the farmers. In order to put pressure on the government, leaders of 32 Kisan unions went on a hunger strike on Monday from 8 am to 5 pm at the Singhu border - the ground zero of the snowballing protests.

While many supporters blocked highways in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan leading to Delhi, protesters at Tikri, Ghazipur and Singhu said they will not give up until their demand is met. Farmer leaders warned that district-level protests will be held in various states, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Bihar.

Expressing solidarity with the farmers' movement, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also joined the fast with AAP leaders, MLAs, and volunteers at the party office, and described the new agri-laws as "anti-farmer and anti-common man". 

After their daylong fast, farmers held a meeting on the Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur borders of the national capital in the evening, and decided that all the farmer unions will hold another important meeting on Tuesday at the Singhu border to chalk out the future strategy of the movement.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar met to discuss the issue of the farmers’ movement. A delegation of Haryana BJP MPs and MLAs also met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and supported the three new farm laws. Union Minister of State for Water Resources Ratanlal Kataria, Lok Sabha MPs Dharamveer Singh and Nayab Singh Saini and Rajya Sabha MP DP Vats and some MLAs were present in the meeting.

Now, with the deadlock still prevailing after several rounds of talks, the question is what the farmers will do if the government refuses to repeal the three farm laws and in which direction will the farmers’ movement go from here? 

The agitation is likely to have three options: - the first is that the farmers should accept the amendments made by the Centre in the new farm laws; the second is that the government should repeal the new laws, and the third is that the movement should continue for an indefinite period to put pressure on the government.

The problem is that the government has already indicated that these agricultural laws will not be withdrawn. The farmers too are adamant on their stand. As the deadlock persists, there is merely an option of finding out a middle path, in which, both sides should take steps to reach an agreement to end this stalemate.

The need of the hour is to look at some farmer leaders who are willing to find a solution to the vexed issue to end the stalemate at the earliest. On its part, the government should also reach out to them and put across its points in a better way and depute some experts to persuade the agitating farmers for talks.