Farmers’ Protest Live Updates: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Sunday said he will be holding a one-day fast tomorrow in support of the protesting farmers. He also urged all Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers and supporters to observe one-day fast in solidarity with the farmers. Addressing a virtual press briefing, the chief minister said the Centre should immediately accept all demands of the farmers who have been protesting on Delhi’s borders for the past two weeks. He also asked the BJP-ruled Centre to shun “arrogance” and scrap three farm laws as demanded by agitating farmers, and bring a Bill to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for agricultural produce. Meanwhile, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Som Parkash met Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday amidst farmers’ protests against the Centre’s three agriculture laws, news agency PTI reported. The ministers were accompanied by BJP leaders from Punjab. Tomar and Parkash, along with their ministerial colleague Piyush Goyal, had led the government’s negotiations with the protesting farmers.
The Delhi Police on Sunday stepped up vigil on the national capital’s border with Haryana as farmers plan to block the Jaipur National Highway-8, which passes through Gurgaon, as part of their protest against the Centre’s new farm laws, news agency PTI reported. The city police had on Saturday had made elaborate security arrangements by deploying additional personnel and placing more concrete barriers after the farmer organisations announced their Delhi Chalo march from neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Haryana.
A day after Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said the farmers’ agitation has been “infiltrated by Leftist and Maoist elements”, Union minister Ramdas Athawale said it is important to inquire if such people have entered who have no relation with the farmers’ protest. Addressing a press conference in Maharashtra’s Nagpur city on Sunday, Athawale, head of the Republican Party of India (A) which is an ally of the BJP, told PTI that Union minister Raosaheb Danve’s claim of China and Pakistan being
behind the farmers’ protest is “not the government’s stand”.
The union leaders on Saturday said they were ready to hold talks with the government provided they discussed repealing the three new farm laws before anything else. “We will not refuse a meeting with the government,” Kanwalpreet Singh Pannu, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Punjab, said. “If the government wants to have a discussion, we are ready for that. But our main demand is that the three laws be scrapped… Until these laws are repealed, we will not go onto the fourth or fifth demand,” he added, while addressing a press conference at the Singhu on the Delhi-Haryana border.
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