Amid an ongoing protest against 3 farm laws, a delegation of 29 farmers from Haryana met Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday to extend their assistance to the new legislations and threatened to stage a protest if these are repealed.
The delegation, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union’s (Mann) Haryana state leader Guni Prakash, submitted a “letter of support” to Tomar on the farm laws passed by Parliament in September and demanded the government to continue with these legislations.
“We will also protest if the government repeals the laws. We have given a memorandum to all districts,” Prakash told reporters right after the meeting.
He also sought to know why the prior government did not implement the suggestions of the Swaminathan Commission till 2014.
“Everyone has a right to protest. They have, so do we. We are in support of the three laws, but this protest is being led by Leftists and those who are violent,” he stated.
Claiming that the ongoing farmers’ agitation is no longer a peasant movement, the BKU leader stated, “It has taken a political colour. Farmers will get real freedom through these three laws.”
This was the second group of farmers from Haryana that met Tomar and extended assistance to the farm laws. The 1st group had met the minister on December 7.
No breakthrough has been accomplished for the duration of the six rounds of talks amongst the Centre and the agitating farmers so far, as the farmers have stuck to their demand for a repeal of the laws, in spite of the government sending them a draft proposal to amend certain concerns without the need of abolishing the legislations.
The 3 laws have been presented by the government as significant reforms in the agriculture sector that will take away the middlemen and let farmers to sell their create anyplace in the nation.
However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the security cushion of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and scrap the mandis (wholesale markets), leaving them at the mercy of massive corporates.
The Centre has maintained that the MSP and the mandi method would continue and would rather be enhanced and strengthened additional.