Farm Laws: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to farmers to come forward for talks.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today made an appeal to "let the farm laws be implemented for a year or so", adding that the government will be ready to amend them if they are not found to be beneficial to farmers.
"Let farm laws be implemented for an year or two. Let's try this as an experiment, and if found not beneficial for farmers, the government will be ready for all possible amendments," Mr Singh said at a rally in Delhi as part of the ruling BJP's efforts - spanning 100 press conferences and 700 meetings - to combat the protest against the three new farm laws by thousands of farmers and the opposition. The protest - the biggest by farmers in years - completes a month today.
"All problems can be resolved through dialogue. The Prime Minister wants talks with farmers to continue. I appeal to all protesting farmers to come forward for discussions on farm law," the Defence Minister said. This is the second such appeal by Mr Singh in two days.
"Those who are sitting on dharna (protest) are farmers and are born to farmers' families. We have a lot of respect for them," he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today released Rs. 18,000 crore to over nine crore farmer families under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) programme. "Some people are spreading myth and lies that land will be taken away if farmers enter into contract farming," PM Modi said, hitting back at the opposition for its charges that farmers won't benefit from the farm laws.
Multiple rounds of talks have failed; the farmers insist the laws be scrapped while the centre will only amend certain sections. The centre has said it remains open to further talks but has left it to the farmers to fix a date and time.
Opposition parties, which tried to block the farm bills in parliament in September, had earlier requested President Ram Nath Kovind not to sign on the bills. The bills, they had said, were passed in the Rajya Sabha in an undemocratic manner. The President, however, had given his assent to all three bills.
(With inputs from PTI)