MSP logjam: Govt, farmers resume talks after a year, next round on Feb 22

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi met a section of farmers in Chandigarh

The long-stalled meeting between a section of protesting farmers and the Central government on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) guarantee and other demands was resumed after almost a year in Chandigarh on Friday.

 

The two-and-a-half hour talks were held in a ‘cordial atmosphere’ and the next round of discussion, in which Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is expected to participate, will be held on February 22. Union Food Minister Prahlad Joshi represented the Centre in Friday’s meeting while the farmers were represented by fasting leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and others, including a 28-member delegation from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha.

 

“Meeting between farmers, a central team led by Union Minister Pralhad Joshi was held cordially. The government has called another meeting on Feb 22 where agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will also take part,” farm leader Dallewal said after the meeting.

 

Food Minister Joshi is believed to have highlighted the steps taken by the central government in the last year, including a programme to assure 100 per cent purchase of tur, urad and masur over the next four years.

 

Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian and the state's Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Lal Chand Kataruchak along with top government officials, including Chief Secretary KAP Sinha and DGP Gaurav Yadav, also attended the meeting held at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration.

 

Dallewal, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) convenor, has been on an indefinite hunger strike at the Khanauri border point since November 26 to press the Centre on various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops. On January 18, a delegation of senior officials from the Union agriculture ministry, led by Joint Secretary Priya Ranjan, invited representatives from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha for a meeting to discuss their demands.

 

Dallewal had agreed to take medical aid following the invitation but refused to end his fast unto death. Four rounds of talks were held between central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024 but the talks remained inconclusive.

 

Last year, a panel of three Union ministers - Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai - held talks with farmers' representatives on February 18. The farmers then rejected the Centre's proposal that government agencies would buy pulses, maize, and cotton crops at MSP for five years.

 

Farmers, under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces barred them from marching towards Delhi to press for their demands.

 

Besides a legal guarantee for crop MSP, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.