Chandigarh, February 5
Amid reports of the Congress government engaged in backdoor parleys with farmers’ unions, a committee of ministers and MLAs constituted by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to discuss issued related to the agitation has just met once in the last week of January.
“The next meeting of the committee has been rescheduled three times. Seeing the gravity of the situation at the Delhi borders, the committee members should meet more frequently as after the January 26 incident at the Red Fort, political intervention is urgently required. The committee members were asked to give suggestions,” said a committee member.
It was on the suggestion of certain ministers that a delegation of the committee members was sent by the Chief Minister to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the missing youths in Republic Day incidents and providing them legal aid.
Sources said in the meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the ministers
were categorically told that the Centre would not repeal the laws and the state government would prevail upon the farmer unions to
understand the situation and come for negotiations with an open mind.
The Congress government which has been supporting the farmers’ concern finds itself in a piquant situation. At a recently held all-party meeting, a resolution sought immediate withdrawal of the farm laws and the statutory MSP. The meeting also adopted a resolution to condemn “sponsored” violence in Delhi, calling for a judicial probe into laxity/complexity of those responsible for law and order at the Red Fort.
At least three Punjab government officials have been camping in Delhi to provide inputs to the state government on the farmers’ stir. The Opposition has been alleging that the officers were holding parleys with farmer leaders to end the sir, which has been strongly denied by the Congress government.
However, the state government has been pressing upon the Centre and farm leaders that an early solution was required as a prolonged stir would have dangerous implication for the state. With UP farmer leader Rakesh Tikat presently at the centre of the farmers’ stir, the government is anxiously waiting for a peaceful solution.
