Farmer leaders detained as Centre fixes next round for talks on May 4

The Punjab Police tonight arrested several protesting farmers from the Shambhu and Khanauri borders and detained farmer leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal in a bid to end the more than year-long protests demanding a legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops.

 

The arrests came hours after talks between the top leadership of the protesting farmers and three senior union ministers, including Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, remained inconclusive in Chandigarh.

 

After the meeting, which lasted for more than three hours, Chouhan said the talks would continue and the next meeting would be held on May 4.

   

"The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. The discussions took place in a positive and constructive manner. The talks will continue. The next meeting will take place on May 4," the minister said after the meeting.

 

Besides Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal were also present at the meeting held at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26, Chandigarh.

 

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak were also part of the meeting.

 

It was the seventh round of talks between the two sides since February last year.

 

An official release said that various legal, economic, and other dimensions of the farmers' demands were explored and highlighted during the meeting.

 

Based on the discussions, the government has decided to hold stakeholder consultations with farmer organisations across the country, as well as with states and Union Territories, traders, exporters, and the food processing industry, the statement said.

 

Meanwhile, the detention and arrests of farmer leaders invited all-round criticism from farmers’ groups and political parties, with the faction of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) that spearheaded the year-long agitation against the farm bills on the Delhi borders saying that the arrests show the AAP government in Punjab is hand in glove with the Centre in enforcing a corporate and multinational corporation (MNC) framework in agriculture.

 

Farmers' leader Rakesh Tikait strongly condemned the arrests by the Punjab government, saying that a nationwide agitation would be launched unless the leaders were released immediately. The opposition Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) also strongly condemned the police action.

 

A 28-member delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha took part in today’s meeting.

 

The two farmer bodies are spearheading the farmers' stir.

 

The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held on February 22, attended by Chouhan, Joshi, and Goyal.

 

A meeting between a central team led by Joshi and farmers' representatives was also held on February 14.

 

Before that, four rounds of talks took place between central ministers and protesting farmers in February 2024, but they remained inconclusive.

 

The protesting farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year, after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press their demands.