Tanvi Sinha
Ahead of the 9th round of peace talks between farmers and the centre, National Spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union, Rakesh Tikait stated that farmers would not do their Republic day rally if it was ordered so by the Supreme Court and said that they hold the rally on another day.
The plans initially were that the farmers conduct a rally from Red Fort to India Gate and hoist the National flag at Amar Jawan Jyoti.
The BKU through a spokesperson also said that the bill that was passed by the parliament should be repealed on orders of the parliament alone, and not a committee appointed by the SC. They want the government to scrap the three laws and give a legal guarantee for MSP.
The ninth round of talks between the government and the farmers started at around 12 pm, 15th January afternoon at Vigyan Bhawan.
The government had beforehand welcomed the Supreme Court ruling on the committee mandated by it.
In the midst of the talks, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi marched to Raj Niwas in a protest against the farm laws.
Both centre and farmers agreed on their commitment to continue their dialogue and discussed the essential commodities amendment act 2020, one of the disputed acts amongst the three farm bills and of police repression on protestors and others.
Agricultural Minister Tomar asked farmers groups to try and be flexible and spokespersons from BJP’s Punjab Kisan Morcha asked farmers to try to understand the bill and look at how they have (the centre) accepted various demands of the farmers and that the farmers should also try and name demands other than the singular demand of repealing the laws.
Even as it was said that the MSP Guarantee Act would be discussed next after a break, talks were finished for the 15th of January to resume on 18th again.