Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday warned the federally ruling Modi government that ongoing protests will be ramped up unless the trio of farm laws are scrapped by 26 November, which marks the first anniversary of the farmers' protest.
In a tweet, Tikait warned that if their demands were not met by this date, tractor-riding farmers will join the protestors' ranks on Delhi borders.
On Sunday, the farmer leader said that if anyone forcefully tried to remove them from the protest sites, they would "turn government offices across the country into grain markets."
Tikait's warning comes after Haryana State Police removed barricading from one of the protesting sites.
Thousands of farmers have been protesting at three border points on the outskirts of Delhi – Tikri, Singhu, and Ghazipur – since 26 November last year. They argue that the new laws will end minimum support price (MSP) – a government-set guaranteed price for farmers' produce – and will pave the way for industrialists to enter into the farming system. Growers fear that they will be left at the mercy of big agribusiness in the future.
However, according to the Narendra Modi government, these laws were introduced to enable farmers to sell their products to any seller across the country and deal with private companies directly, instead of operating through government-regulated wholesale markets.
There have already been 11 rounds of talks between farmers and the government but they have only led to the stalemate.