The Delhi Chalo farmers’ protest at the Delhi border points has entered the ninth day and is set to continue as the talks between three Union Ministers-Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar, Som Prakash, and farmer groups ended in a stalemate on December 3, 2020. Leaders of the farmer unions rejected the Centre’s offer of setting up a new committee to investigate issues raised by agitating farmers.

Farmers have said that the protest will continue until their demands are met and the contentious laws are scrapped. They fear that the new farm laws will dismantle the minimum support price system and corporatize farming. The farmer unions have called for a Nationwide Bharat-bandh on December 8 in protest against the farm laws. The farmers’ unions are now more confident as support has poured from abroad, various sections of Indian society like sportspersons and non-BJP parties in India. Trinamool Congress supremo and Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee had called the farmers’ unions to state the party’s support for the protests.

Meanwhile, human rights activist and Senior Advocate in Delhi High Court, HS Phoolka stated that the Bar Council condemns the three farm laws. The bar council has written to the Prime Minister to repeal them as they are against the farmers. Adding more, he said, “It is also against the lawyers as it bars the Civil Court’s jurisdiction and would not let farmers get justice.”

Extending support to farmers’ protest against the new farm laws, the Bar Council of Delhi has written a letter to Prime Minister urging him to repeal the new farm laws. The letter said that it seems that while framing the laws, it was not brought to the notice of Prime Minister that they are “more detrimental” to the interest of legal professionals across the country apart from being harmful to the farmers. It said that “bar of civil court jurisdiction” will substantially affect district courts as well as high courts in some states.

The letter said that the nature of subject matters covered under these laws is so vast that all disputes up till now entertained by civil courts will be adjudicated by SDMs/ADMs, who are not part of regular courts. They also stressed on the other inherent anomalies in the farm laws.

Senior Advocate Ramesh Gupta, Chairman Bar Council of Delhi, said that the government should have consulted and taken lawyers into confidence when farm laws are simply not related to routine revenue matters but matters which are basically contractual and commercial.

According to the lawyer’s body, these laws are not only detrimental to the peasants but also affect the lawyer community, the litigants, and the general public. “The mindset behind the move to oust the jurisdiction of civil courts and transfer of power to bureaucrats, acting as executive officers, to decide disputes between the traders and the farmers, will lead to corruption, and touts will victimize unimaginably. Shutting the doors of civil courts to entertain disputes, pertaining to the subject matter under these Acts will prove disastrous,” the letter said.

Ahead of the second round of talks between the Centre and the representatives of protesting farmers, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had held deliberations with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on ways to dispel concerns over the new farm laws. Tomar, Goyal along with Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash had represented the Union government on Tuesday during the talks with farmer leaders, who have been demanding a repeal of the newly enacted laws. During the deliberations, the ministers are believed to have discussed the issues raised by farmers, and how the Union government can constructively respond to dispel concerns expressed by them over the farm laws. Over 35 farmer leaders had held a three-hour meeting on Tuesday and again on Thursday at Vigyan Bhavan with the ministerial delegation. All of the talks regarding the farm laws till now have remained inconclusive.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh met Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence on Thursday, ahead of the crucial fourth round of talks between the Centre and farmer leaders over their agitation. Captain Singh had also raised concerns that the protests are impacting the economy of Punjab. Protesting farmers had demanded that the central government call a special session of Parliament to repeal the new farm laws and threatened to block other roads of the national capital if their demands are not met. Meanwhile, Kejriwal hit out at Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh saying that he was speaking ‘BJP’s language’ by accusing him of “implementing” the disputed farm laws in Delhi. The three farm laws were implemented across the country with the signature of the president and no state can stop them, Kejriwal said, about the three farm laws being stiffly opposed by the farmers.

Next meeting of farmer leaders with the central government is to be held on December 5. The last meeting had continued for nearly 7.5 hours. The centre and representatives of 35 farmer group had concluded with Agriculture Minister assuring the farmers that MSP (Minimum Support Price) will not be touched. No changes will be made to the MSP as replied by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to the farmer leaders during their meeting at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi.

The agitating farmers have urged through their union leaders that the Union government needs to convene a special session of Parliament to repeal the three farm laws, besides threatening to hold a nationwide protest on December 5.

Police had closed routes on two national highways connecting Ghaziabad to Delhi as farmers remained adamant on their demand for scrapping of the Centre’s agriculture reform laws and stayed put at the national capital’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Men and women, many of them with their children, have assembled at Delhi’s borders in Singhu, Tikri, and Gazipur to take part in protests against the new farm laws with hundreds of farmers having gathered at the Noida-Delhi border too.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness