NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: Even as the government is preparing to get a Cabinet nod on the decision to repeal the new farm laws at the next meeting on Wednesday, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) wrote to PM Modi on Sunday, urging him to immediately resume talks on six demands, including a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP).
“You appealed to us to go back to our home… We too want to go back…after resolving the pending issues. If you want the same, then the government should immediately resume talks with the SKM on the six issues. Till then, the Morcha will continue this movement,” the SKM said in its email to the PM.
The demands now include the removal of junior home minister Ajay Mishra, whose son Ashish Mishra is accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
A discernible upping of ante, with the pointed reference to MSP and the addition of new demands, seems to indicate that road blocks at Delhi borders may not end with the repeal of the three new farm laws by Parliament soon after it meets on November 29.
Enlisting six demands which include three fresh ones, SKM said, “You must be aware that the repeal of the three laws is not the only demand of this movement. From the very beginning of the talks with the government (last year), the Morcha had raised three additional demands.”
However, during the failed meetings with government negotiators, the unions had made complete repeal of the three laws their core demand.
Besides legal guarantee on MSP, the other demands include withdrawal of Electricity Amendment Bill, scrapping of provisions of fines for stubble burning in the Commission for Air Quality Management Law, withdrawal of cases against farmers registered during the protests in different states, sacking and arrest Mishra over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, and compensation to kin of around 700 farmers who the unions claim died during the protests and allotment of a site at Singhu Border to set up a memorial.
The last three demands in the list of six are new additions which, the SKM said, have arisen during the “historic movement in the last one year” and these too need to be resolved immediately.
These demands will be taken up at ‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’ in Lucknow on Monday when the farmer leaders would explain their stance and pitch for action against Misha who belongs to UP. The forthcoming polls in UP seem an added trigger for holding the meeting in Lucknow.
While welcoming PM’s announcement on Friday about the decision to repeal the farm laws, the SKM in its email to him said farmers now expect his government to “fulfil the promise at the earliest and in full”.
Referring to the MSP issue, SKM has not only demanded a legal guarantee but also that it be decided on the C2+50% formula (comprehensive cost including imputed cost of capital and the rent on the farmers’ own land) instead of the current A2+FL (all paid-out cost incurred by farmers and the value of family labour) while arriving at the support price of 23 crops.
The Morcha will meet again on November 27 — two days before the winter session of Parliament and their scheduled tractor march to Parliament House and take a call on the future course of action keeping in view of developments.
Sources hinted at the possibility that the committee to consider issues like crop diversification and “strengthening” of MSP, as announced by Modi on Friday, could be discussed in Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The mahapanchayat is expected to witness an impressive turnout of farmers from not only UP, but from other states as well, said Bhartiya Kisan Union state vice-president Harinam Singh Verma.