On Friday, the 8th round of talks between Centre and farmers' unions concluded in two and a half hours without achieving any tangible outcome similar to the previous deliberation. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and MoS Commerce Som Parkash represented the Centre during the talks. While the farmers maintained that they will not move from the protest sites till the three agrarian laws are repealed, the Union government refused to concede to this demand.

However, it reportedly indicated a willingness to amend the legislation based on the inputs of the farmers' unions. The meeting witnessed some acrimonious scenes with a farmer leader showing a paper with 'We will either die or win' written on it. Previously, the Centre had agreed not to penalise farmers for stubble burning and to continue the present mechanism of giving subsided electricity for agricultural use. But the farmer leaders have consistently rejected the proposal to have a clause-by-clause discussion of the farm laws. Tomar exuded confidence that the impasse will be resolved during the next round of talks scheduled to be held at 2 pm on January 15.

Source: Republic Bharat