After 7th round there is no breakthrough in Centre-farmers talks, next meet on January 8

The seventh round of talks between protesting farmer unions and three central ministers failed to reach a breakthrough in the over-a-month-long deadlock on recent farm laws. The next meeting between the Centre and farmers is scheduled to take place on January 8 at 2 pm.

In the fresh round of talks on Monday, the farmer leaders continued to press for the withdrawal of the three farm laws but the government remained firm on their stand and refused to rollback the agricultural reforms.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, held the talks with the representatives of 40 farmer unions at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

The meeting began with paying respects to the farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing agitation. However, no breakthrough was reached on the two main demands of the protesting farmers -- a repeal of the three recent farm laws and a legal guarantee to the MSP procurement system.

Bhartiya Kisan Union's Yudhvir Singh said the government wanted to discuss the farm laws "point-wise" and "intends" to amend farm laws.



However, the farmers have rejected the government's proposal to amend farm laws and will never accept it as they want "complete rollback" of the agricultural reform.

"The minister wanted us to discuss the farm laws point-wise. We rejected it and said that there is no point in discussing the farm laws because we want a complete rollback of the laws. The government intends to take us towards amendments but we will not accept it," Bhartiya Kisan Union's Yudhvir Singh.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Centre-farmers' talks failed to reach a "consensus" as the farmers remained adamant on the repeal of the farm laws. Tomar, however, said he is confident that the stalemate between protesting farmers' unions and the central government will soon end and a consensus will reach in the next meeting on January 8.

"We wanted farmer unions to discuss the three farm laws clause-wise. However, we were unable to reach a consensus as farmer union remained adamant on the repeal of the farm laws. We are hopeful that we can find a solution in the next meeting on January 8," Narendra Singh Tomar told media after the seventh round of meeting between Centre and the farmer leaders.