Farmers protest

The meeting of the farmer leaders with the government, which started at 12 noon on Friday and went on for around five hours, over the three contentious farm laws and the demand for minimum support price (MSP) ended in a stalemate.

Speaking on the occasion, Rahul Gandhi said: "Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not respect the farmers... the party is with farmers in support of them till these laws are withdrawn."

Addressing media after witnessing Jallikattu (bull-taming) in Madurai, he said: "Mark my words... the government will be forced to take the farm laws back. I am very very proud of what the farmers are doing and I fully support farmers and continue to stand with them."

Mann said in the letter that he was thankful to the apex court for nominating him as one of the committee members to start a dialogue with the protesting farmers. Mann's action comes in the wake of questions raised in certain quarters on the impartiality of the committee members, who were accused of supporting the farm laws earlier on.

Demonstrators led by the leaders of 40 farmers' organisations have been camping at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur borders, demanding the withdrawal of the new farm laws. Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Pal Majra told IANS that the protesting farmers have been braving the harsh winter, day and night, for over one and a half months, unrelenting in their demand for the withdrawal of the legislations.

The Minimum Support Price (MSP) system in existence before the enactment of the farm laws will be maintained until further orders from the top court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian told the AG that if there is infiltration by a banned organisation, then the government has to confirm it and asked him to file an affidavit by Wednesday. AG replied, "Yes, I will file an affidavit and the IB reports."

Stressing that the film does not have any envisioned shape or duration, he says, "Everything depends on the duration of the protests. It would be a different one if the protests go on for six months. It will take another shape if the agitation finishes in a month. And in case, the farmers' call of their sit-in immediately, we will have to make do with what we have already."

A bench headed by Chief Justice S. A. Bobde said, "We are going to suspend the implementation of the three farm laws until further orders." The Chief Justice mentioned the names of agriculture economist Ashok Gulati, Dr. Pramod Kumar Joshi, Anil Dhanawat and B.S. Mann to be on the committee to hear the farmers' issues regarding the laws.

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it has been actively and intensively engaging with the states for about two decades to introduce reforms to provide an accessible and barrier-free market system for better price realisation, but states either showed reluctance to adopt the reforms in true spirit or made partial or cosmetic reforms.