Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 21: Unless something concrete emerged at Friday’s meetings between the farmers’ unions and the central government panel, the protesting agriculturists and the Delhi police seems to be heading to a collision course over the proposed tractor rally in Delhi on the Republic Day.
At the Friday’s meeting, the farmers’ unions are due to convey their response to the central government’s proposal to suspend the implementation of the three contentious acts for 18 months to two years if they were ready to continue deliberations and suggest amendments over the contentious provisions in the acts for the government to ponder.
The initial response of the farmers unions at the proposal was a strict “no” but during the course of the meeting on Wednesday they agreed to discuss the proposal among themselves and get back to the government with response at the Friday’s meeting.
Considering that the farmers find nothing new in the proposal except that for the first time the government had offered to suspend the implantation of the acts pending a final decision, it was unlikely that the Friday’s meeting would bear any concrete result leading to the farmers calling off the agitation and return home. The thousands of farmers, particularly from the northern states, squatting on the borders of Delhi for the last 57 days had been adamant that the agitation would end only with total roll back of the three acts, a demand the government has repeatedly rejected.
The farmers announced a tractor rally on the Republic Day as an expression of their protest against the government and the issue kept hanging on fire for the last fortnight or so. The farmers union on Wednesday claimed that about five lakh farmers from all over the country would converge in Delhi on January 26 and more than one lakh tractor would participate in the rally to be taken out on the busy outer Ring Road of Delhi.
The farmers have claimed that the rally would be “peaceful” but the police is apprehensive of a possible flare up if the rally was allowed anywhere near the national capital.
After the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the issue and left it to the government and the police to decide on giving permission to the farmers for the rally, several rounds of meetings were held between the farmer leaders and the police.
The Thursday’s meeting between the police and the protesting farmer unions on Thursday ended on an inconclusive note as the farmers stuck to their demand of holding the march on Delhi’s busy Outer Ring Road. The meeting was attended by senior police officers of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said the police wanted the farmers to take out their tractor rally outside the national capital. “We will do our parade peacefully inside Delhi. They wanted us to hold the tractor rally outside Delhi, which is not possible,” Yadav, who is actively taking part in the agitation, said.
As part of their protest, on January 26, thousands of farmers from Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders are set to take out a tractor march on Delhi’s Outer Ring Road. However, police officers tried to convince the unions to take out the tractor rally on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway instead of the Outer Ring Road, but in vain.
A farmer leader, who attended the meeting, said, “The government wants us to take out our rally outside Delhi, but we want to hold it inside Delhi. No decision was taken in today’s meeting.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appointed committee of three experts to mediate between the farmers and the government began functioning meeting various farmer leaders. On Thursday, the panel virtually interacted with 10 farmers’ organisation from eight states, including Uttar Pradesh. Other states were Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. The panel is supposed to submit its report to the apex court in two months and until a decision was taken the apex court has stayed the implementation of the acts.