The central government on Thursday sent a formal letter to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) agreeing to accept their pending demands and prompting the farmers' body to suspend their over a yearlong agitation.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi on Sunday described farmers, who have been protesting against three farm laws, as 'our own flesh and blood' and suggested that the government should re-engage with them in reaching common ground.
Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions, has organised protests in different states on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the farmers' movement against three central farm laws.
'We request the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to get justice delivered as soon as possible because we as well as the nation are at a loss while we keep sitting here for the protest.'
As a precautionary measure and to avoid any turbulence in law and order situation, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has decided to keep three Metro stations -- Vishwavidyalaya, Civil Lines and Vidhan Sabha -- shut from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm on Saturday.
In a three-page letter written to 40 farmer leaders, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Vivek Aggarwal said, 'I again request you that the government has been discussing all issues with open heart and good intention to end the protest, and will continue to do so. Kindly suggest a date and time (for the next round of talks).'
Congress leader Manish Tewari demanded that the government should provide Rs 5 crore compensation to the families of the farmers who died during the farm laws agitation
Farmers said that they never blocked roads at the Delhi border points.
A large number of women from various states reached the sites of protest against the Centre's three farm laws that has been going on for over 50 days now.
Singh, an executive committee member of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, also called Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut 'manchali (crazy)' for her remarks about the country's independence.
This appears to be a common refrain in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri Lok Sabha constituency where farmers want better prices for their produce and respite from the stray cattle menace and others want political leaders to talk about job creation instead of issues like the Ram temple and Article 370.
The new party -- Bharatiya Aarthik Party -- claims to represent farmers, traders and labourers,
The sixth round of talks between the two sides are being held after a considerable gap. The fifth round of talks was held on December 5.
Farmers said the agenda of the meeting should also include amendments to be made and notified in the Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020 to exclude farmers from its penal provisions.
The hunger strike between 8 am and 5 pm is part of the farmers' plan to intensify their agitation from Monday.
Farmers have taken down their settlements and have vacated the borders around Delhi, which were their protesting sites for the last one year.
A purported video of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra in which he is heard telling farmers that he would 'discipline' them in 'two minutes' appears to have angered them even before Sunday's violent clashes in Lakhimpur Kheri.
These 22 farm bodies were among 32 farmer organisations in Punjab which participated in the over-a-year-long protest against the three central farm laws.
Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has given special permission for demonstration by a maximum of 200 farmers at Jantar Mantar, a few metres from the Parliament Complex, till August 9.
With farmers on Thursday blocking railway tracks across the country, at stations big and small, protesters at Singhu said it proves that the agitation is not just limited to Punjab and Haryana.
'Arithmetic could decide the Haryana election given the presence of multi-cornered contests.'
BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said they planned to meet President Droupadi Murmu and will hold another mahapanchayat in Haryana's Kurukshetra on Friday to discuss the next steps in the agitation.
Prominent wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, have been holding protests since April 23 accusing Singh of sexual exploitation.
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.
In a statement, the SKM alleged that the government had not fulfilled any of the promises, including setting up a committee on minimum support price and withdrawal of cases against protesters, made to the farmers.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Bijendra Kumar Yadav said farmers have formally declared that they will start returning home from Saturday onwards, but it is not a time bound exercise as their movement will keep progressing through the day.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which is spearheading the protest against the Centre's three new agri-marketing laws, told the MPs the 'Voters' Whip' overrides their party whips.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a tweet said the rights to peaceful assembly and expression should be protected both offline and online.
Centre's move to form a 29-member panel on making the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism effective and keeping three positions vacant in it for SKM representatives has triggered strong disapproval from it.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Wednesday said that a consensus has been reached over a revised draft proposal of the Centre on their pending demands and it will now meet on Thursday to decide the future course of the movement, even as its leaders demanded a formal communication on government letterhead.
A statement issued on Monday by the umbrella body of farmers' unions protesting against the central farm laws, reiterated earlier 'ultimatum about October 11 being the deadline for the sacking and arrest of Ajay Mishra Teni'.
In a democracy, all have the freedom of expressing their views, but none can be given the right to create disturbance and instability in the country, it said.
The farmers' acceptance of the proposal came hours after the Centre sent them a letter suggesting December 30 as the date for the dialogue, against December 29 the protesting unions wanted.
In a video apparently of a speech made to his supporters, Mishra dismissed allegations levelled against him.
The minister made made it clear that "nobody can be hanged without a probe just because someone demands it".
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar Wednesday said the Centre is not holding any informal talk with protesting farmers and described putting up of more barricades and suspending internet in and around agitation sites as law and order issues related to local administrations.
However, the farmers are still protesting, demanding a law on MSP. Besides MSP, the farmers are also demanding a resolution for the livelihood of the families of the 700 farmers who died while protesting against the three farm laws.
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 Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday made the first arrests in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence taking into custody two people and had also summoned Ashish, an accused, for questioning on Friday, hours after the Supreme Court set the same day for the state government to explain who are the accused in the first information report (FIR) and whether or not they have been arrested.
'While all organisations welcome the suggestions of the Supreme Court to stay the implementation of the farm laws, they are collectively and individually not willing to participate in any proceedings before a committee that may be appointed by it,' a statement issued by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said.
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