Farmers’ Protest Enters 11th Day, Next Round Of Talks On Wednesday: 10 Points

1. Hours after Mr Tomar appealed to farmers to scale down their protests more of them rolled up to the Delhi border, where thousands have set up camp after being held back by police barricades for over a week now. Despite the inconvenience of living by the roadside, farmers’ morale remains high. Some of those at Singhu on the Delhi-Haryana border say they are determined to see this fight through and have come prepared with provisions for at least six months.

2. Tuesday’s “Bharat bandh”, which farmers say signals intensifying of protests, has been backed by the opposition. The Congress and Telangana’s ruling TRS have announced support. In Tamil Nadu the opposition DMK appealed to the public and traders to abide by the shutdown call. Left parties, the RJD, the Samajwadi Party and Bengal’s ruling Trinamool have also backed the bandh call.

3. The army of farmers that has camped out around Delhi continues to affect vehicular traffic in and out of the city. The Ghazipur border on National Highway 24 has been closed to traffic from Ghaziabad. People have been advised to use the Delhi-Noida-Delhi Expressway. Police have also closed the Tikri and Jharoda borders. National Highway 44 has been closed on both sides.

4. The Badusarai border is open only to cars and two wheelers, while the Singhu, Auchandi, Lampur, Piao Maniyari and Mangesh borders are closed. People travelling to Haryana have been asked to use one of Dhansa, Daurala, Kapashera, Bijwasan, Bajghera, Palam Vihar or Dundahera borders.

5. Hours into Saturday’s meeting irate farmers’ reps underlined their rising discontent over a lack of progress by going on a brief silent protest and refusing to engage with the centre; they held up placards that said “Yes Or No?”. The (unasked but implicit) question was “Will the centre scrap the farm laws?” They had also threatened to walk out but were persuaded to return to their seats.

6. After the meeting Mr Tomar told reporters the centre had assured farmers MSPs would continue. “There is no threat to this scheme and it is baseless to doubt (it will be scrapped),” he said, adding that the centre also had no plans to dismantle mandis (wholesale markets). The centre offered to amend sections but farmers say nothing less than a complete recall will satisfy them.

7. Saturday’s talks – the third this week and fifth overall – began after a high-level meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior cabinet ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah. Sources said PM Modi, who defended his government’s laws at a public event in UP’s Varanasi on Sunday, was briefed about the protest and the status of negotiations.

8. At Thursday’s talks farmers’ reps made a 39-point presentation on the farm laws’ inadequacies, refusing piecemeal changes and demanding written assurances on extending the MSP scheme. Over the course of a protest that began in September the farmers have repeatedly expressed concern over laws they say will leave them at the mercy of private firms. The centre offered to amend the laws and give farmers more legal rights, but stopped short of repealing the legislations.

9. A petition has been moved in the Supreme Court asking that farmers around Delhi be removed because they are blocking emergency medical services. Filed by a local resident, the petition cites a top court order from September that said protesters cannot occupy public places indefinitely. That order was in the context of protest in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

10. At least three deaths have been recorded during the protests so far. The farmers have told the centre it would be “inhuman” – given the cold weather – to drag this out any further. On Thursday Punjab announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of two of farmers from the state who died during the protests.

With input from ANI, PTI