The condition of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on hunger strike since November 26 over various demands, is critical. He is on indefinite hunger strike at Khanauri border between Punjab and Haryana. Despite this, no high-level talks are taking place between farmer leaders and representatives of the central government. The matter has reached the Supreme Court and the apex court is also suggesting talks between farmers and the government. In such a situation, the question is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and farmer leaders are not able to sit together.

Last Thursday also, this issue was heard in the Supreme Court. A bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan asked the Center to respond to the new petition filed by Dallewal. In this, a request has been made to direct the central government to implement other demands including legal guarantee of MSP on crops to the protesting farmers in 2021 after the repeal of agricultural laws.

The government in the court
asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, 'Why can't your client give a statement that he will consider the genuine demands and we are ready to discuss the grievances of the farmers, our doors are open? Why can't the central government give a statement?' To this, Mehta said, 'Perhaps the court is not aware of various factors, so right now we are limiting ourselves to the issue of one person's health. The central government is concerned about every farmer.'

On the other hand, politics has heated up in Punjab and Haryana over Dallewal's condition. Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that Dallewal's health condition is serious and the central government should give up its stubborn attitude and accept the demands of the farmers and immediately end his (Dallewal's) fast.

Government's stand
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, while talking to journalists recently, said that the Supreme Court is currently looking into the matter. Whatever instructions the Supreme Court gives, they will be followed. He gave this answer when asked about inviting the farmers who have been protesting in Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border since February 2024 to talk. This answer of Chauhan shows the changed attitude of the government towards the agricultural movement. Modi Government 3.0 has so far shown foresight in talks with farmers, whereas in the previous government (Modi Government 2.0), the government had actively negotiated with farmer organizations.

Is humiliation the reason?
During the second term of the Modi government, when farmers were protesting against the three agricultural laws brought by the central government and were sitting on the borders of Delhi for almost a year, three Union ministers - Narendra Singh Tomar (Agriculture Minister), Piyush Goyal (Food Minister), and Som Prakash (Minister of State for Commerce) held 11 rounds of talks from October 2020 to January 2021. Now these laws have been repealed. On 8 December 2020, when the farmer protest increased, Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself reached the Pusa campus in Delhi late at night to meet the farmers. The stubborn attitude of the farmers was blamed for no solution being reached after 11 rounds of talks. In a way, the government was also humiliated by this.