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Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike for the past 81 days, met with Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and a team of central officials as part of a 28-member delegation for negotiations that went on for over two hours on February 14, 2025.
The next round of talks will now take place on February 22 and will likely be led by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The talks happened over 12 key demands of farmer groups, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) on crops.
The meeting on February 14 happened exactly a year after farmers started camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border posts between Punjab and Haryana on February 13 last year, after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi.
The 28-member delegation, representing the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), has spearheaded the protests.
The talks started after a delegation of officials from the Union agriculture ministry, led by Joint Secretary Priya Ranjan, met Dallewal on January 18 and held a meeting with the representatives of the SKM (Non-Political) and KMM. Following this, Dallewal, agreed for medical aid on January 19 and was then administered an intravenous drip.
On February 14, Dallewal arrived in an ambulance to participate in the meeting with Joshi and other government officials at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh’s Sector 26.
Besides a legal guarantee on MSP, the farmers have been demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in the electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and ‘justice’ for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
After the meeting, Joshi, who is the minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, told media persons that the government officials outlined steps being taken to address farmers’ welfare and that these discussions will continue on February 22.
Meanwhile, Dallewal informed that he would continue receiving medical aid, but would not end his hunger strike, until the government agreed to the farmers’ demands.