Farmers’ protest LIVE Updates: ‘Some elements’ trying to misguide, govt ready to accept farmers’ suggestions, says Nitin Gadkari – India News , Firstpost

Farmers’ protest LATEST Updates: The union minister on Tuesday said that dialogue is the only way forward to end the stalemate with protesting farmers. He appealed them to understand the agri laws and not be misguided.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet members of the farming community, including Sikh cultivators in Gujarat, during a visit to Kutch district on Tuesday, a day after leaders of unions observed a hunger strike on Monday.

The hunger strike, observed by 40 farmers’ union leaders from 8 am till 5 pm, earned the support of Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Centre want the discussions on farm laws to be held “clause by clause.” However, the farm unions, who organised a peaceful Bharat Bandh last Tuesday against the laws, have repeatedly stressed they want nothing short of a total repeal.

Meanwhile, Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, which is spearheading the protests at Delhi border points, distributed handbills in Hindi to commuters on the Jaipur-Delhi Highway near Haryana-Rajasthan borders, where hundreds of farmers have been camping for almost past three weeks now, to convey their apology, and also reiterate their demand for legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP).

“Blocking roads, causing inconvenience to the public is not our aim,” read their pamphlets. “We are sitting here under a compulsion. Yet we apologise with folded hands if our agitation has caused you any inconvenience.”

Farm unions intensified their ongoing agitation in several parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Monday by sitting on fast and organising demonstrations, triggering traffic snarls that lasted for several hours in some places, particularly paralysing transport on NH-8, the main link between Rajasthan and Delhi.