BKU's Rakesh Tikait ready for discussion with Centre on farm laws, says dialogue only way

On the 27th day into the deadlock between farmers unions and the Centre over the three farm laws, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday said a solution is possible through dialogue only and his organization is ready for it, while adding that his organisation still demands the complete withdrawal of the laws.

"The solution will come only out of a dialogue. If the government wants to talk, we are ready. The government wants this bill to be amended. We don't want that we want a repeal of the law. The government has refused to withdraw the law," he said while speaking with ANI.

Speaking about the farm leaders writing a letter to UK MPs of Indian origin for urging PM Boris Johnson to cancel his visit to India, Tikait said that writing the letter is not on their agenda while iterating that the farmers' committee will take a call over writing the letter.

 "The committee will take a decision on this. Some Britain MPs are supporting our protest. Boris Johnson had earlier said that he supports our protest and this matter should be settled. To write such a letter is not on our agenda."

The Central government on Sunday sought a date from the farmers' unions for holding deliberations over the three farm laws after several rounds of deliberations failed to change the unions' stance towards the laws. 

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Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the central government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for the elimination of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates. The government on multiple occasions have assured the farmers that the MSP and Mandi systems will not be impacted by the laws and accused the opposition of misleading the farmers.

Pro-law farmers organisations come out in large numbers

Also, in a big breakthrough for the government, several farmers organizations have come out in larger numbers to express their support to the farm laws. Earlier in the day, farmers in Meerut organised an outreach program to highlight the benefits of the three farm laws. Moreover, farmers have also held tractor rally in Gautam Budh Nagar. Days before this, a crowd of 20,000 farmers from Meerut came out in support of the three agrarian laws. Farmers organisations had even met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to express their support to the farm laws with certain amendments in place.

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