Farmers start removing tents from their protest site in Singhu on Delhi-Haryana.
The 15-month-long protest by farmers ended today as the Centre accepted their remaining demands, including a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Prices. The farmers, who have been camping at the Delhi borders, said they will go back on Saturday.
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The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions, will hold a review meeting in Delhi on December 15. But the farmers have decided to celebrate their success with a Fateh Ardas (victory prayer) this evening and a Fateh March (victory march) at Singhu and Tikri protest sites on the moring of December 11, sources said. Punjab farm leaders plan to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on December 13.
The farmers have been continuing their protest even after the Centre decided to scrap the contentious farm laws last month. When the Centre finally accepted the rest of their demands, a few niggles remained, which were ironed out in the formal letter they received today.
A key point was the proposed committee on Minimum Support Price, where the farmers wanted inclusion of their representatives. The government's letter, accessed by NDTV, showed that the government has agreed to this.
Cases against farmers across the country will be withdrawn, the government has also said. The amnesty will stretch to complaints of stubble burning, which contributes to the customary winter haze across Delhi and its surrounding areas.
The government will also bring an Electricity Amendment Bill in Parliament after discussing it with the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, the conglomerate of more than 40 farmers' unions.
Compensation will also be given to the families of farmers who died. The farmers claim more than 700 died during the protest that had simmered across the country since last year. Many died in Ground Zero -- the borders of Delhi -- unable to bear the brutal winter and summer.
The main demand of farmers -- which pushed them from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh towards Delhi last year, in face of police batons and water cannons -- were three farm laws passed by the Centre.
The laws were scrapped on the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament on November 29, the repeal bill sped through both houses without practically any discussion.
The resolution of the unprecedented protest came after months of face-off between the two sides, involvement of courts and a final series of U-turns by the government months before a string of crucial state elections. The protests had affected campaigning in the poll-bound states, with angry protesters barring entry of leaders and disrupting meetings.
For the government, which had furiously defended the farm laws for around two years, it was a huge climbdown. In his address to the nation on the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "While apologising to the nation, I want to say with a sincere and pure heart that maybe something was lacking in our tapasya (dedication) that we could not explain the truth, as clear as the light of the diya, to some of our farmer brothers".
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