Farmers' stir: Punjab BJP leaders meet Shah, say unions should not be adamant on repeal of laws

New Delhi: A day before the Centre's next round of talks with farmer unions protesting against new agri laws, Punjab BJP leaders Surjit Kumar Jyani and Harjit Singh Grewal met Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Thursday.

After the meeting, Jyani told reporters that the farmer unions should not be adamant on their demand for repeal of the three farm laws.

He also alleged that Left leaders have entered into the movement and do not want the matter to be resolved.


Grewal asserted that the government is ready for everything that is in farmers' interest.

Jyani was chairing the BJP's coordination committee for interacting with farmers in Punjab last year on the three farm bills which at that time had not been passed by Parliament. Grewal was a member of the panel.

They had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue earlier this week.

Shah had earlier held informal talks with a select group of protesting farmer leaders to break the deadlock.

The next round of talks between the government and the protesting farmer unions is scheduled to be held at Vighyan Bhavan at 2PM on Friday.

The last seven rounds of talks between the Centre and the 40 protesting farmers' leaders have remained inconclusive.

Ahead of the talks with the government, thousands of farmers on Thursday took out tractor marches from protest sites of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders and Haryana's Rewasan against the three agriculture laws amid heavy police deployment.

According to the protesting farmer unions, this is just a "rehearsal" for their proposed January 26 tractor parade that will move into the national capital from different parts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

The protesting farmers, especially from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at various borders of the national capital for over a month now seeking repeal of the three farm laws and legal backing of minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.