Thousands of farmers have been protesting around Delhi for the past many months.

New Delhi:

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume talks over the three farm laws that had sparked a farmers’ agitation in several parts of the country last November. The umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions has written to the Prime Minister saying it cannot give up the struggle since it is a matter if life and death for the protesters.

Several rounds of talks between farmers and the government representatives have failed to break the deadlock over the three Central pieces of legislation.

The protesters want the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price for crops.

However, the government maintained that its new laws are pro-farmer.

The agitation till now has largely remained focused along Delhi’s borders, with thousands of farmers parked there since the protest began. They mostly constitute people from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and some other parts of the country.

A government panel had met them on January 22, but there’s been talks since the January 26 violence in the national capital.

“Any democratic government would have repealed the three laws that have been rejected by the farmers in whose name these were enacted, and seized the opportunity to provide legal guarantee of MSP to all farmers,” the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s letter reads, according to a PTI report.

“…as head of the government of the largest democracy in the world, the onus of resuming a serious and sincere dialogue with the farmers lies with you,” it said.

The farmers’ body recently announced that it would observe May 26 as “Black day” to mark six months of their protest at Delhi’s borders, the agency reported. Farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal has appealed to the people asking them to raise black flags at their homes, vehicles, and shops on May 26.