The contrast between the two meetings couldn't have been more stark, yet, both were organically linked, the latter a show of support for the former.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union-led protest against the Centre's new farm laws in Ghaziabad looked like it was going slim on Thursday but more protesters have joined the stir, following a mahapanchayat of farmers on Saturday in Muzaffarnagar, while supporters also joined in from Haryana and Rajasthan districts.
Farmer outfits on Friday started mobilising more batches of peasants from Haryana and Punjab to head towards Delhi's borders to join the ongoing agitation against agri laws, even as political parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Indian National Lok Dal threw their weight behind them.
Farmers blocked the national highway in Pipli in Haryana's Kurukshetra district for a second day Tuesday over the MSP for sunflower seeds, with BKU leader Rakesh Tikait asking the state government to accept the demand or send farmers to jail.
The government on Thursday asked farmer groups to consider its proposals for amending the Acts to address their concerns and said it was open to discussing its offer further whenever the unions want.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer organisations that spearheaded the 2021 protest, adopted the resolution to "intensify the fight against the policies of the Union government to save farming, food security, land and livelihoods of the people".
Bhartiya Kisan Union-Tikait leader Dilbag Singh, a witness in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, was allegedly attacked by two unidentified men in Lakhimpur Kheri, the police said on Wednesday.
Going firm on their demand for repeal of the new agri laws, hundreds of farmers spent another night in the cold and withstood an early morning drizzle on Thursday on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at their heavily-secured protest site at Ghazipur.
Stepping up protest against the Centre's paddy procurement policy, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Monday led a dharna in the national capital organised by his party, and warned the Modi government to respond within 24 hours if it will buy the grain from the state.
Thousands of farmers from around 100 villages of Noida and Greater Noida on Thursday took to the streets seeking hiked compensation, bringing traffic to a standstill in several parts of Delhi-NCR as they made an unsuccessful bid to march towards Parliament.
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) supporters stayed put on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway on Friday as the crowd swelled there, notwithstanding the Ghaziabad administration's ultimatum to vacate the UP Gate protest site where security force in large numbers was re-deployed.
A large number of farmers on Tuesday squatted at the gates of the district headquarters in Karnal, locked in a showdown with Haryana's Bharatiya Janata Party-led government over a police lathi-charge last month.
"It was partly in response to Tikait's tears that he decided he also has tears," Tharoor said
The Uttar Pradesh authorities on Tuesday agreed to the demand for a second post-mortem of a farmer killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident after his family refused to cremate him, while mortal remains of the three others were consigned to flames at their native places during the day.
The protesting farmers celebrated Holi at the borders and maintained that their agitation will continue till the farm laws are repealed and a separate law on minimum support price is enacted, it said in a statement.
Bharatiya Janata Party member of Legislative Assembly Suresh Rana, who was arrested for his alleged role in fanning communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, was booked on Thursday under the National Security Act.
The statement comes after videos and photos of workers removing the nails near Ghazipur border surfaced on social media.
Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai and farmer leaders from Punjab will meet on Sunday for the fourth round of talks.
On National Investigation Agency's notices to some people supporting the farmers' protest, he said, "Those who want to be part of the agitation must be ready for court cases, imprisonment and sealing of property."
Referring to Modi, Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as 'outsiders', the farmer leader said he has no objection if they become prime ministers after winning polls from Uttarakhand or Gujarat.
The protesters who had gathered under the banner of the Joint Forum for Restoration of Old Pension Scheme and National Joint Council of Action said they were worried about their post-retirement future.
A large number of farmers stayed put outside the gates of the district headquarters in Karnal on Wednesday as they remained firm on their demand for action against IAS officer Ayush Sinha, who ordered a police lathi-charge on a group of peasants last month.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait claimed that the crops are not procured by the government as per the MSP.
'If banging thalis could drive corona as Modi said, banging thalis will drive away the farm laws.'
SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said Akhilesh will not participate in the yatra, nor will any other leader from the party.
The announcement came after the protesting farmers received a letter from the central government, with promises of forming a committee on minimum support price (MSP) and withdrawing cases against them immediately.
While the RLD has fought the just-concluded polls in tie up with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, the office-bearers of the BKU, which was part of the anti-farm laws protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre, insists it is an 'apolitical' group.
Here are some of the key farmer leaders who fronted the protests.
As cracks began to appear in their ongoing agitation against the agri laws, farmer unions on Wednesday cancelled their planned march to Parliament on February 1 when the Budget would be presented.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions, will be holding a mahapanchayat in Lucknow on Monday in a show of strength days after the Prime Minister's announcement of repealing the three farm laws.
'When in both post-mortems, doctors say that he was not shot, we had not option left but to cremated him'
According to sources, the government has worked out possible solutions to the provisions on which farm leaders have raised objections.
Some farmers in the state's Karnal, Jind and Ambala districts had destroyed wheat crops over two to four acres of their land.
'Now that the home minister met us to discuss our demands a hope has definitely been kindled that farmers's demands will be met by this government.'
Sanyukt Kisan Morcha said the move is aimed at further strengthening and expanding the farmers' agitation which began in November last year.
The Delhi Police on Thursday began removing barricades put up at the Tikri border where thousands of farmers are protesting against the Centre's three agri laws, a senior officer said.
After videos went viral on social media showing actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu handing over a flag to a man to hoist on the ramparts of the Red Fort on the Republic Day during the farmers' tractor rally, farmer leaders on Wednesday raised doubts over his political affiliation, claiming that "he is a worker of the Bharatiya Janata Party".
"No meeting will be held between farmers and the government tomorrow. The minister has said that a proposal will be given to the farmer leaders tomorrow (December 9). Farmer leaders will hold a meeting over government's proposal," Mollah had told the media on Tuesday.
Farmers have taken down their settlements and have vacated the borders around Delhi, which were their protesting sites for the last one year.
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