Ball in your court now: Tomar to farm leaders after talks break down

he eleventh round of talks between the government and farmers ended on Friday without any solution in sight as Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged the farm union leaders to rethink about rejecting the government’s proposal to suspend the new farm laws for one-and-a-half years.

Furthermore, unlike earlier talks, no date was set for the next meeting, with Tomar telling farmers that “the ball is your court now”. The minister also said that he was “sad” because farmer leaders did not seem to have “farmers’ welfare at the heart of (their) talks”.

“Talks remained inconclusive as farmers’ welfare was not at the heart of talks from the unions’ side. I am sad about it… We asked them to reconsider our proposal as it is in the interest of farmers and the country,” Tomar was quoted by news agency ANI.

He also suggested the centre would be ready for another round of talks only if the farmers wanted to discuss suspension of the laws. “We also told farmers to give their own proposal, other than repeal of the Acts, if they have got anything better than our offer,” he said. In an interview with TV channel NDTV, Hannan Mollah of the All India Kisan Sabha said, “Today’s meeting was was only 15-20 minutes… no discussion was held. Government said we have done maximum we can do… if you (the farmers) want to go forward, tell us by noon tomorrow and we will arrange a new meeting.”

After the meeting, Parminder Singh Palmajra, a Bharatiya Kisan Union leader from Punjab, said the farmers will now further intensify the agitation.

The ministers present in the talks—Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash—will shortly address the media about the dialogue.