The protests by farmers camping at the borders of the national capital entered the 25th day on Sunday while opposing the new Union farm laws. To pay tribute to the farmers who lost their lives during this agitation, 'condolence meets' are being organised at different places in Delhi on Sunday which would be observed on the same day as the 'Martyrdom Day' of Guru Tegh Bahadur.Guru Teg Bahadur was the ninth Sikh Guru who sacrificed his life for humanity and Sikhism.Punjab farmer leader Gurvinder Singh, associated with the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), said tribute is being paid to the farmers who lost their lives during the farmer agitation fighting for their basic rights. He informed that condolence meetings are being held in other parts of the country, including Punjab and Haryana.Major Singh Punawal, General Secretary of Punjab's All India Kisan Sabha, arrived at a condolence meet held in Delhi. Punawal told IANS that since the ordinance relating to the three new farm laws came into effect in June, farmers have been opposing the laws and honour the memory of those farmers who laid down their lives amid the farmer agitation by organising condolence meets across the country.
Punawal said that later on Sunday afternoon, there would be a meeting of farmer organisations at the Singhu border in which the strategy and action plans ahead would be extensively discussed. Asked on the talks with the Central government, he said, "We are always ready to talk to the government provided the government tells us that it will consider rollback of all the three farm laws."In the Monsoon Session of Parliament, the three ordinances related to three crucial agricultural Bills were introduced in the Parliament and after approval of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the three laws -- The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, came into force in September.Farmers' organisations, which have been camping at the borders of Delhi since November 26, have been demanding withdrawal of all three farm laws while the government has proposed amendments involving issues related to the interests of farmers.Meanwhile, on December 17, Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar wrote a letter to the farmers, accusing the opposition parties of misleading the farmers while referring to the benefits to the farmers from these laws. In response to this letter, a letter was written on behalf of the protesting farmers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tomar on Saturday in which they have responded to all the allegations made by the government.