Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 25: As his predecessor and the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Monday lambasted the central government and the prime minister Narendra Modi for ignoring the farmers’ issues, the union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar claimed that the centre had given the “best possible offer” to the agitating farmers to resolve the deadlock.
The centre at the 11th round of meeting with the farmers’ union leaders on Friday had offered to suspend the implementation of the three contentious acts for 18 months and use the time to arrive at an agreed solution through a committee comprising the representatives of all the stake holders. The offer, however, was rejected by the farmers who maintained that nothing less than the total roll back of the three acts would satisfy their demands.
Tomar, however, claimed that it was the best possible solution to the present impasse and hoped that the farmers would realize the gravity of the offer once they discuss it among themselves and would come back to the government for further talks and expressed the hope that the farmers agitation would end soon. “The government has given the best offer to farmers’ unions. I am hopeful that they will convey their decision to us after discussing it among themselves. Once they communicate, we will take it forward,” he said.
He also said the agitation would end soon. “The farmers’ agitation would end soon. The government’s proposal to suspend the farm laws for 1 to 1.5 years is the “best offer” and the farmers should reconsider it,” he said.
Tomar maintained that only a handful of farmers in the country were expressing dissent against the new farm laws. “Anyone can express dissent if they disagree. When we saw that some farmers, although their number isn’t very high, were protesting against the farm laws, we thought that we must find a solution via dialogue and we still hope that issue will be resolved,” he said.
While the minister didn’t comment on whether there would be a next round of talks, he said he would be ready to meet the farmers to hear out their final decision on the government’s offer.
Commenting on the Kisan Tractor Rally that the farmers are planning to organise on Republic Day, Tomar said, “They (farmers) could have chosen any other day instead of January 26 but they have announced it now. Farmers would have to ensure that the rally is conducted peacefully, without accidents. This is a concern for the police administration as well.”
Tomar’s predecessor, Pawar, a former union agriculture minister, who addressed a farmers’ rally at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai, strongly criticized the attitude of the Narendra Modi government pointing out that the farm laws were passed without detailed discussion in Parliament despite opposition parties demanding deliberations on the bills concerned.
Training his guns at the Centre, Pawar said, “It’s unfortunate that those who are in power don’t care about farmers. Braving cold weather, farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are agitating for the last 60 days. Has the PM enquired about them? Do these farmers belong to Pakistan?”
Pawar also had a dig at the Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari who refused to give time to the farmers for an audience. Koshiyari, who also holds additional charge of Goa, is currently in Panaji.
“You are going to Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor. Maharashtra has never seen such a Governor before. He has the time to meet Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut but not the farmers. It was the moral responsibility of the Governor to come here and meet you,” Pawar said at Azad Maidan where thousands of farmers from all over the state have gathered for the last two days in support of the north India farmers squatting on the borders of Delhi for the last two months demanding scrapping of the three farm laws.
Maharashtra revenue minister and state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat, All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah and others also addressed the rally in Mumbai.
The Delhi Police Monday gave No objection certificate to farm leaders for Tractor March on the Republic Day giving only conditional clearance for the rally. As per the police order, only 5,000 tractors and 5,000 participants have been allowed in the rally which would have to start after the official R-Day parade was over around 12 P.M. and could go on till 5 P.M.
While the farmer leaders had earlier claimed that at least one lakh tractors and several lakhs of farmers from all over the country would participate in the tractor rally, the restricted police permission had an instant reaction from a section of farmers.
The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee said they were not satisfied with the kind of permission granted to them and would meet the Delhi Police again for reviewing the situation. “We feel that the kind of permission granted to us for tractor rally is not right. We wanted to go to the old Ring Road but we were given conditional permission & assigned the portion that comes largely under Haryana,” Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra said.
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. Social activist Zeba Khan said women will be participating in the tractor rally shoulder to shoulder with their fellow male farmers.
Khan, who is among the women participating in the rally, claimed that at least 500 women will be in attendance on Tuesday. “Women’s contribution was invaluable during India’s freedom struggle. On Tuesday also, we will be there to make our contribution to this movement,” she said. The activist, who hails from a family of farmers in Jharkhand, added that the rally was a crucial moment in their agitation which was “no less than a freedom struggle”.