Narendra Modi’s Gurudwara visit points to his reach-out efforts to farmers

NEW DELHI: Twenty-five days into the farmer agitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken steps to initiate confidence-building measures like paying a surprise visit to Gurudwara Shri Rakab Ganj on Sunday to try and break the deadlock and urge the protesting farmers to return to talks.

Officials told ET that the conciliatory tone of the PM, gestures like paying obeisance at Rakab Ganj Sahib, folding his hands to invite them for talks during his address on Friday and terming farmers as “innocent and gullible who have been misled by political interests” were initiated to change the “sentiment on the ground”.

On Sunday night, the agriculture ministry invited the farmers’ groups for a meeting again through a letter written by a joint secretary to farmer leader Darshan Pal and all others who were part of earlier talks. “Please inform us of your remaining concerns and inform us of a date convenient to you for a meeting at Vigyan Bhavan so that a solution can be arrived at and the present agitation ends soon,” the letter said, referring to the government's earlier written proposal on December 9 for amendments that the farmer groups had rejected.


Officials ET spoke to said the PM was convinced on the utility of the new farm reforms for all states, including Punjab, which already had embarked upon contract farming for the last few years with impressive results, and there was no question of repeal. The PM had held a review meeting on November 25 on “operationalising agricultural reforms” and pointed out that there was a “lot of scope of capital investment in the agriculture sector”, as per the minutes of the meeting which ET has accessed.

“States and UTs should form a team to implement agriculture reform to get the most benefit. States and UTs should organise workshops and seminars to educate farmers on benefits, create awareness among all relevant stakeholders and farmers,” the PM had directed at the meeting, the minutes say.

As part of these reforms, the PM is keen to push for the smooth implementation of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund under which Rs 1 lakh crore would be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans for investments in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets.

The PMO is said to be involved in bringing out a farmers’ booklet and minister NS Tomar’s letter to farmers is being translated in Punjabi for wide circulation among farmers. The booklet lists steps taken by the Modi government for the benefit of the Sikh community.