The government has taken measures to resume the stalled talks by requesting the leaders of the agitating farmers to come forward for further talks at a date convenient for them.

On Sunday night, Vivek Aggarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, wrote a letter addressed to Darshan Pal, one of the prominent farmer leaders leading the protests, with copies to 39 others, listing out what the steps that have been taken by the government to address the grievances of farmers.

The five-page letter urged the farmer leaders to explain their objections in detail by having a face-to-face talks at a day and time convenient for the farmers.

Are the farmers’ protests justified?

Farmers from across the country, especially from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping out at key entry points to the national capital, demanding the scrapping of three recently passed Acts, which they felt are against their interests and were passed mainly to help big corporates in the country.

A ministerial committee comprising Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash held three rounds of talks in the first week of December, but the farmers remained adamant to their demand of the repeal of the farm laws. The government, on the other hand, told them it was willing to make sufficient amendments in the Acts, but the farmers said they are not sufficient.

The support for the farmer agitation swelled over the weeks, with many farmer groups from other States marching to Delhi in solidarity with the farmers who were already protesting outside Delhi.

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