New Delhi: The government has given protesting farmers written assurance that their demands – which include legal guarantees for MSP – will be met, sources said Tuesday afternoon, in what is a hugely significant moment for an agitation that has rumbled on relentlessly for over 15 months.
Should they accept this offer, the farmers will call off a protest that has made headlines across the country (and the world) for more than a year, triggering violent clashes with security forces, furious debates and ruckus in Parliament, and the deaths, reportedly, of more than 700 farmers.
Sources said the government has told farmer unions it will form a committee to decide the MSP issue and that all police cases, including those to do with stubble burning, will be dropped.
The MSP committee will consist of officials from the centre and states, as well as experts and reps from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of farmer unions that has led this entire protest.
Thousands of cases filed in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh against farmers over violent clashes with police will also be dropped, the government said in its letter.
The question of compensation for farmers – a point raised ferociously by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi last week when he accused the government of lying – was also mentioned.
The farmers referred to the Rs 5 lakh for families by the Congress government in Punjab, to which the Centre said the governments of UP and Haryana had, in principle, agreed to similar measures.
Telangana had offered Rs 3 lakh to the families of farmers from the state who had died.
It is understood that while the farmers are amenable to the offer, there is one sticking point – the government wants the farmers to stand down before police cases are dropped.
Another round of talks to iron out this point is likely, sources said.
Farmers had earlier also demanded the sacking of junior Home Minister Ajay Mishra, whose son, Ashish, has been arrested in connection with the running over of four farmers in UP’s Lakhimpur. But the government had repeatedly dismissed any talk of Mishra resigning. It is understood that no such offer has been in today’s letter, and that farmers have accepted this.
Last week farmers said Union Home Minister Amit Shah had spoken to them (via a phone call) to discuss outstanding issues; this was after their protests forced the Centre to scrap the farm laws.
With inputs from NDTV
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