Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Sunday that the protesting farmers, who have been staging a demonstration against the Centre’s farm laws for close to two months now, do not see the benefits of the laws. Narendra Singh Tomar said the farmer unions are stuck on the withdrawal of the farm laws.
Speaking exclusively with the Aaj Tak, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, “The farmer unions only talk about the farm laws’ withdrawal. They do not analyse the benefits of the farm laws. That is why the discussions so far did not bear any fruit.”
“We [the Centre] tried to understand their issues, analysed them, and sent the farmers a proposal. They should not have rejected the Centre’s proposal on the farm laws. We could have moved forward had they accepted the proposal,” Narendra Singh Tomar said.
“Farm laws were passed under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and with the farm laws, the government had attempted to make several changes in the agricultural sector for the benefit of the farmers. The Centre is completely sensitive towards the farmers and has taken several steps forward to hold talks with them to resolve the issues,” Narendra Singh Tomar said.
The agriculture minister said, “When we [the government and the farmer unions] met on Friday, I said the government has put forward a number of proposals before them and it [the Centre] does not know which one would you [farmers] agree on or if they have any proposal, they can put it before the government. But we did not receive any proposal from them.”
“The farmer unions only talk about the farm laws’ withdrawal and not their benefits,” Narendra Singh Tomar said.
