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Farmers protest: eighth round of talks a few hours away

New Delhi: As farmers are chafing at the bit for a bigger show of protest on Republic Day, the government is holding another talk with them today.

The eight round of talk in New Delhi will see both the parties discussing for a leeway to end the long-haul protest.

Today's meeting will be held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi at 2 pm.

From sit-in protest on national highways to the planned tractor rally on January 26, akin to the national Republic Day rally, farmers are going to make a bolder statement—one that is never seen in the modern India.

Given this, the government is at a loss to make a rapprochement with the farmers, to ward off the disgrace of getting the national day sidelined in media glare.

Thus, today's meeting could be important in many ways.

Leaders and ministers came out of the meeting on January 4 vainly, unable to break the ice that keep on heaping on the stalemate like the freezing weather out in the street where farmers have been sitting for long.

Graver side of the protest is more than 60 farmers, whose lives saw a sudden tumultuous turn with the protest, gave in to the difficult conditions they had to endure.

Raising the decibel of the protest, farmers yesterday took out tractor rally in Delhi borders, which they called ' rehearsal' ahead of the actual on Republic Day.

Earlier, farm leaders asked their followers to get ready for the long haul of protest, meaning there's no telling when it will end.

They among other things want a law that guarantees the minimum support price.

The contentious laws over which the famers protesting are: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The protesters understand these could harm their livelihoods and bargaining power. The government harps on the laws will liberate them to debouch into wider market.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other states are camping here, making the protest one of the biggest in India history of modern India.

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