Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged agitating farmers to protest against the three new agricultural laws and end their agitation and give an opportunity to agricultural reforms, saying that it is time to make agriculture happy. He said that the country should move in this direction. Following this appeal by PM Modi, farmers opposing the agricultural laws have asked the government to fix time for the next round of talks. The farmers said that the government should fix a date for talks. This initiative of the farmers unions has come when Prime Minister Modi appealed to the farmers in the Rajya Sabha to end their agitation.
According to the news agency PTI, after PM Modi’s request, farmer unions agitating against the three agricultural laws have asked the government to set a date for the next round of talks. Asked about the Prime Minister inviting talks, the farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said that the protesting farmers union is ready to negotiate with the government, but it should be done by formal route. He said that any issue can be resolved through proper dialogue. We are theoretically ready to restore dialogue.
At the same time, farmers’ organizations have objected to Prime Minister Modi’s comment in Rajya Sabha that a new breed of agitators has emerged in the country, which is called agitator. He said that the movement has an important role in democracy. Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka, a senior member of the United Kisan Morcha, told PTI that they are ready for the next round of talks and the government should tell the date and time of the meeting. Kaka said that we never refused to talk to the government. Whenever the government called for talks, we held talks with Union ministers. We are ready to talk to them (government).
Let us tell you that 11 rounds of talks have been held between the government and farmer organizations regarding the controversial new agricultural laws, but the deadlock still remains. Farmers’ organizations are adamant on withdrawing all three laws and providing legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price, MSP. In the previous round of talks, the government had offered to suspend all three agricultural laws for 12 to 18 months, but the farmers’ organizations rejected the proposal.
Taking part in the discussion on the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Prime Minister Modi once again assured the farmers that the mandis will be modernized. He said that not only this, the MSP continues and will continue. PM Modi appealed to the farmers to end the agitation and said that they (agitators) should withdraw the agitation and we will sit together and find a solution and the doors of dialogue are open. From this House, I invite him again for talks.
