The Congress is banking on decisions like reducing electricity tariff and fuel prices, taken during current CM Charanjit Singh Channi's 111-day tenure.
Hundreds of farmers, chiefly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, continue to encamp Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur border points of Delhi despite "a few" of them being removed after testing positive for COVID-19 and some symptomatic protesters undergoing medication.
Tomar and Parkash, along with their ministerial colleague Piyush Goyal, had led the government's negotiations with the protesting farmers.
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announcement, farmer leaders have maintained the protesters won't budge until the three contentious laws are formally repealed in Parliament.
There is "dictatorship" in India now with politicians not being allowed to visit Uttar Pradesh to meet the families of the victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Rahul said.
The deceased has been identified as Jai Bhagwan Rana (42), a resident of Pakasma village in Rohtak district of Haryana. He had consumed Sulphas tablets at the farmers' protest site at Tikri on Tuesday, they said.
Bhajji took to Twitter and posted a note in Hindi urging the powers that be to give the farmers an ear.
Aam Aadmi Party's Ferozepur Rural candidate Amandeep Ashu Banger on Monday quit the party and joined the ruling Congress in Punjab, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's outfit runs like a "multinational company" with only Delhi leaders calling the shots.
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.
Taking to Twitter, the Delhi chief minister said peaceful demonstration was a constitutional right of the farmers.
Though there was no clear roadmap, the farmers, belonging to multiple groups, including 30 from Punjab, appeared clear in their resolve, some saying that they would not disperse till the laws were repealed and others that would ensure their voices are heard.
A land-owning class, the Jats are a powerful community and account for 28 per cent of Haryana's population. The time, they believe, has now come for them to take revenge.
Behind the movement are shock-workers functioning quietly to ensure that a seemingly spontaneous, apolitical, grassroots mobilisation sustains itself without dribbling into chaos or violence. Sai Manish lists some of them.
'Punjab farmers were unnecessarily being targeted and defamed for air pollution in Delhi'
The provisions exempt farmers from attachment of land up to 2.5 acres and provide for prevention of hoarding and black marketing of agricultural produce.
KC Venugopal mentioned that the Congress's goal is to diminish the BJP's representation in Uttar Pradesh by securing half of the seats in the state.
Shah asserted that the BJP will once again form the government in Uttar Pradesh with a comfortable majority.
Neither Union agriculture minister nor junior ministers were present to hear our concerns. We asked why the minister is not meeting us, why the government is playing double standards by calling us here and ministers holding virtual meetings in Punjab. There was no proper response," Darshan Pal, member of the coordination committee of 29 farmers' organisations, said after the meeting.
The SKM had said that the rail blockade will held across the country from 12 pm to 4 pm.
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.
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "troubled" with only 15 minutes of wait whereas farmers protested against the farm laws for a year.
Addressing public rallies at Barnala chowk and Bhawanigarh in Sangrur, the chief minister vowed to do whatever it takes to protect the farmers and the state from the 'devastating' effects of the 'black laws'.
India's capital -- New Delhi -- is witnessing farmers from Punjab and Haryana sitting in at the Singhu and Tikri border points for the past five days, braving water cannons, tear gas and the biting cold. Their reason to protest - the Centre's new farm laws. Here's what it looks like.
The Congress on Friday described the Centre's announcement to repeal three farm laws as a victory against injustice, and said arrogance had to bow its head before the peaceful satyagraha of farmers.
Punjab footballer Tony Sandhu and Kabaddi player Mangi Bagga from Punjab's Shahkot started the initiative to help protesters with accommodation at the Singhu border. The makeshift arrangement is currently being used by approximately 2,000 people.
Singh had said that he and his government were willing to mediate in the talks between the Centre and the farmers in the collective interest of all.
Around a dozen Bharatiya Janata Party leaders confined to a house in Patiala's Rajpura for nearly 12 hours allegedly by protesting farmers were rescued early Monday following a late night Punjab and Haryana high court order to the state police.
After over a year, the Singhu border, which was the epicentre of the farmers' agitation, now bears a deserted look with the last batch of demonstrators leaving for their home states on Monday.
Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shutdown against the Centre's three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.
After climbing to the highest level in more than five years to 4.7 million tonnes in FY24, India might import fewer quantities of pulses this financial year at 4-4.5 mt on the back of good monsoon and higher domestic production, Bimal Kothari, chairman of India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), said in New Delhi on Friday. Kothari was addressing reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on pulses titled "Bharat Dalhan-2024".
Panthic politics came easily to Parkash Singh Badal. But he was quick to abandon it when it became a problem, points out Aditi Phadnis.
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.
Despite heavy security deployment, groups of farmers from Punjab managed to reach near two Delhi border points on Friday morning after breaking police barricades in Haryana.
'The rail network all across the state of Punjab is presently totally clear for uninterrupted movement of goods trains,' a home department statement said in Chandigarh. However, hours after the Punjab government's statement, the Railways accused it of 'misguiding' people over the extent of blockade of rail tracks in the state by the protesting farmers.
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.
Addressing a public meeting in Badhni Kalan in Punjab's Moga district, Gandhi asserted that the contentious Acts would be revoked if the Congress was voted to power.
Jai Singh, a resident of Tungwali village in Bathinda district, and his brother had been part of the farmers' protest at the Haryana-Delhi border against the Centre's three farm laws for the last several days, according to Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) leader Shingara Singh.
Before bidding farewell to Singhu, some farmers performed havans and sang kirtans, and some danced to bhangra songs to mark the day as 'Vijay Diwas'.
Swaraj India president and former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav on Thursday termed the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's performance in Punjab as "spectacular and extraordinary", but said it's more "an indictment" of the "entire political establishment" rather than the success of a party in the electoral battle.
Already tractor rallies have been held in places like Nawanshahr and Gurdaspur as a build-up to the proposed January 26 event, farmer leaders said. More are planned over the next two days.
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