The GOI once again reached out to the protesting farmers on Thursday, as it has written a letter, addressed to the agitating farmers, asking them to decide the date and time for the next round of talks. “The government is committed to reaching logical solutions of the issues raised by you,” it read. Earlier today, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum containing two crore signatures seeking his intervention in the issue of farm laws.

The agitation by farmers on the borders of the national capital entered its 29th day on Thursday. The farmer unions have asked the Modi government to come up with a new concrete proposal for resumption of talks, even as Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar stressed that dialogue was the only way for a solution and the government was committed to reforms in the farm sector.

In a parallel development, the Kerala government has decided to convene a special Assembly session against Central government’s new farm laws on December 31. The cabinet has decided to send a recommendation letter to Governor Arif Mohammad once again after it was earlier rejected.

Comments of INC leader

There is “no democracy in India” and it exists “only in imagination”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged after meeting President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday and demanded a joint session of Parliament to repeal the three agri laws. He said that if the GOI does not repeal these laws, the country will suffer. Gandhi along with Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met President Kovind and handed over to him a memorandum signed by two crore farmers seeking withdrawal of the three legislations. Gandhi said, “We told the president that the new agri laws are anti-farmer. The farmers and labourers will suffer due to this. The government said that these laws are in favour of the farmers, but the country is seeing that it is the farmers who are against these legislations.”