Despite the prime minister's surprise announcement, farmer leaders have maintained the protesters won't budge until the three contentious laws are formally repealed in Parliament.
'The Modi government must tell us what this person's connection with the BJP is.'
'Mann's decision is a welcome move. The other three members of the panel, who have shown pro-new farm laws stance should also follow Mann's suit'
Harman Preet Singh had claimed in his petition, filed through advocates Ashima Mandla and Mandakini Singh, that Delhi Police on January 27 said that it has detained over 200 persons in connection with the violence in the national capital on January 26 and 22 FIRs have also been registered thus far.
'If we are terrorists and Pakistanis and Khalistanis, why did your home minister talk to our core committee leaders?'
For Dosanjh to stand by his faith, retain the turban and beard, and yet not trivialise himself in the roles he has essayed, is really his biggest achievement, observes Sandeep Goyal.
On International Women's Day, hundreds of women took to streets while raising slogans of "kisan ekta" (farmer unity) and some broke into nonchalant rhythmic steps of 'bhangra'.
The party asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi why a conspiracy was being hatched to destroy the minimum support price (MSP) system and snatch the livelihood of 62 crore farmers.
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.
Tomar said the union leaders kept insisting on repeal of the three farm laws, but the government side tried to explain them the benefits of the Acts and sought to know specific problems faced by the farmers.
Statesmanship requires that the prime minister himself reaches out to those amassed at the Singhu and Ghazipur borders. Modi should be able to win over this domestic front with sheer compassion, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Prominent international celebrities and activists on Wednesday joined American pop star Rihanna to extend support to the farmers' protests here and garner international attention on the protracted stir but their remarks were slammed by India as 'neither accurate nor responsible'.
Finding itself trapped in a cul de sac, all things considered, a negotiated climbdown at this juncture seems the only sensible course available for the Centre, suggests Virendra Kapoor.
Farmers' union body the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Tuesday disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade, and alleged some "antisocial elements" infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.
Reading out a reply to the government's talks offer during a press conference, farmers leaders said that they are ready for dialogue with an open mind if they get a concrete proposal, but made it clear they will not accept anything less than a complete repeal of the three agriculture laws and legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP).
'Let me assure the nation on behalf of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha that our protests have not weakened at all or lost steam.'
Priyanka Gandhi urged people to stand with the farmers' struggle and to take the movement to the villages.
Regardless of how the stalemate ends, the government needs to learn that regardless of its parliamentary strength it cannot take people for granted. A little bit of humility would do it a lot of good, recommends Virendra Kapoor.
Speaking with Shekhar Gupta, the Editor-in-Chief and Chairman of The Print, on his Off The Cuff show, the former soldier and two-time chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh expressed 'personal' hurt over the way the Gandhis treated him and asked for his resignation.
For over three months, the three Delhi border points at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur have transformed into townships occupied by thousands of farmers from different parts of the country, mainly Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
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.
'Farmers will block rail tracks in various places. Markets and transport services will be closed during 'Bharat Bandh'
Rakesh Tikait, the 51-year-old Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader from the hinterlands of Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh, welcomed the support from international artistes and activists, including Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, but acknowledged he does not know them.
India has called the remarks by foreign leaders and organisations on protests by farmers as "ill-informed" and "unwarranted", asserting that the matter pertains to the internal affairs of a democratic country.
In a joint statement, leaders of eight opposition parties extended their support to the farmers who are protesting the three farm laws.
In a show of strength, hundreds of women are expected to drive tractors at 'Kisan Gantantra Parade' on Republic Day, as a large number of farmers opposing the new agriculture laws will enter the national capital under a high security cover.
A day before the crucial talks between the Centre and the protesting farmer unions, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday said the government is ready to consider any proposal other than repeal of three farm laws, the key demand of the farmers.
The Congress expressed its 'whole-hearted' support to the 'Bharat bandh' called by farmer unions against the new agri-marketing laws and announced that it will hold protests that day at all district and state headquarters in solidarity with the demands of the farmers. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the party rank and file would actively participate in the bandh to ensure it was a success.
By late evening, a large group of them had reached the road toll plaza at Panipat, about 100 km from Delhi. Bhartiya Kisan Union (Haryana) leader Gurnam Singh said the protesters planned to spend the night there and will resume the march the next morning.
Union leaders, who came out of the meeting venue shouting slogans, said the talks remained deadlocked and some of them threatened to boycott any further meetings if no solution was found at Thursday's meeting.
'Why should the government keep these laws on hold for 1.5 years when they are so disastrous for the interests and well-being of farmers?'
'This government is so fond of some corporate friends that they can always amend existing laws or make new laws.'
'There will be more than three to four lakh tractors and farmers, four to five times that number, displaying their resolve in front of a deaf, mute and a government blind to their plight.'
Likening Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the character of an arrogant king, 'ahankari raja', from stories of yore, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said he is unable to understand that the 'jawan' who has kept the country safe is also the son of a farmer.
Farmers gathered at several national highways, key roads and some railway tracks in Punjab and Haryana on Friday morning as part of their nationwide protest against the Centre's new agri laws.
Modi also hailed the world's largest vaccination programme being carried out in India against COVID-19
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.
In a show of strength in Jind by protesting farmers, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday warned the government that it could find it difficult to stay on in power if the new agri-marketing laws are not repealed.
Tikait has been at loggerheads with various governments on a range of farmers' issues, including loan waivers, minimum support price, power tariff and land acquisition in states such as UP, Haryana Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh.
Opposition parties on Thursday launched a vociferous attack on the Centre over its handling of the farmers' agitation, callings its dialogues with the protestors 'monologues', even as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party defended the new laws asserting that its government is committed to the welfare of peasants and increase their incomes.
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