Question mark over farm talks, protest leaders on backfoot

Over the final two months, the farmers’ unions had labored strenuously to make sure that their protest towards the Centre’s new farm legal guidelines remained freed from any law-and-order incidents. That their counter to critics who known as them names — from Naxals to Khalistanis — was peaceable protests. However, the violence within the nationwide capital on Republic Day, a crowd breaking away to storm Red Fort, has given the Government a chance to press its case that the agitation entails not simply farmers however hardline components as properly.
It is anticipated to underline this in what is anticipated to be a fractious Budget session of Parliament. That its provide of maintaining the brand new legal guidelines on maintain was rejected by the unions and this was adopted by Tuesday’s violence. The Government will even use the truth that farm unions and even the Congress authorities in Punjab have distanced themselves from and condemned Tuesday’s incidents, particularly at Red Fort.
“Our strategy going forward will definitely change,” mentioned a supply within the Government. “You cannot enter Red Fort by force, plant a flag there and then say let’s talk about the laws.”
“If farmer leaders arrive at an agreement with us and these people (agitators) do not accept that, what will these leaders do? Today’s incidents show their writ may not even run,” the supply mentioned.
With chaotic scenes unfolding in Delhi, as protesters breaching barricades, attacked policemen and entered Red Fort to hoist a non secular flag, senior Union Ministers remained silent. “Pending an assessment of what has happened and what went wrong, we don’t want to say anything,” mentioned a senior official.
Sources additionally identified that the tractor parade going awry might turn into an “exit point” for the farmers’ unions who might want to sign that their authority as negotiators isn’t compromised.
“The Government has so far been flexible and made many compromises which the farmers have rejected. Now that things have taken a different turn and unruly elements threaten to derail the talks, we hope farm leaders use this opportunity to help facilitate a resolution,” mentioned one other supply within the Government.
Officials additionally identified how Delhi Police had been “measured” in its response, aside from firing tear fuel shells.
Since December, the BJP had tried to downplay the protests, saying they have been Opposition-backed and restricted to Punjab. Some of its leaders had even termed the protesters as “Khalistanis” and “Maoists” though Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had stepped in to say that “such allegations should not be made by anyone” towards any farmer.
However, there’s a transfer now to recalibrate the social gathering’s place. Late Tuesday, BJP chief J P Nadda held discussions with senior leaders on the social gathering’s headquarters to determine technique.
Senior social gathering chief P Muralidhar Rao gave a sign of that. Speaking to The Indian Express, he mentioned: “We were thinking the protest was against the formula the Government offered as reforms. But it appears that it is against the Indian Republic and its spirit. What happened in the national capital today was a violation of trust and freedom.”
“In democracy, you can have mobilisation that challenges the Government. It may appear to be humiliating the Government and Ministers. But you cannot challenge the sovereignty and spirit of the Republic. This is what was demonstrated today and we cannot agree to it,” Rao mentioned.
BJP normal secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya took to Twitter and requested: “What happened in Delhi in the name of movement? Can the farmer in the country do this?”
BJP chief Ram Madhav blamed the Opposition for the violence. “After peddling all sorts of falsehoods about farm law reforms n provoking farmers into aggressive action, the Indian versions of Trump like Rahul (and) ilk are now demonstrating pseudo-indignation at violence. They (are) equally responsible for whatever happened in Delhi today,” he posted on Twitter.
Party spokesperson Sambit Patra posted on Twitter visuals of agitators climbing on the flag workers in entrance of Red Fort to hoist their flag and wrote: “Sad!” In one other tweet in Hindi, he posted that “those whom we have been calling annadata (food-providers) all these days proved to be ugravadi (extremists) today. Do not discredit the annadata, call the ugravadi as ugravadi only.”
However, at the least two senior social gathering leaders identified that the Government should “tread cautiously” because it “cannot be seen as anti-farmer” or take any motion that may present a set off for the farming neighborhood in different elements of the nation to escalate the protests.

So far, there have been 11 rounds of talks between the Government and protesting farm unions, with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar main a Ministerial workforce in discussions with 41 farmer representatives.
After the talks on December 22, Tomar had alleged that “some forces” needed to proceed the agitation in any respect prices. “Naturally, when…the Government is ready to resolve the issue related to the farmers and a decision cannot be taken, we can guess that there are some forces that want to continue this agitation,” Tomar had mentioned.
On Monday, in his deal with to the nation on the eve of Republic Day, President Ram Nath Kovind had reached out to the farmers and mentioned that the “path to reform” might initially trigger “misapprehensions” however the Government is “singularly devoted” to their welfare.