Farmers’ protests limited to only one state, says Tomar in Parliament

Amid massive gatherings of farmers at Delhi’s borders, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in Parliament on Friday (February 5) that the protests against new farm laws were limited to only one state and that farmers were being “instigated.”

“Farmer unions and opposition parties have failed to point out a single flaw in three new farm laws,” Tomar said in the Rajya Sabha. He reiterated that the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were committed to the farmers’ welfare.

“There is no question on making it a prestige issue. We have been asking what is black in the laws and no one is forthcoming,” the minister said.

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Earlier, Anand Sharma of the Congress held the central government responsible for the “situation that has arisen” as the farmers’ protests entered 72^nd day.

On Thursday, a delegation of 15 MPs from opposition parties was not allowed to meet the agitating farmers at Delhi’s Ghazipur border, drawing sharp reactions from parties who said they would raise the issue in Parliament.

The government response in Parliament came on a day when Delhi Police said it would write to Google to get the IP (internet protocol) address or the location from where the ‘Toolkit’ document was created and uploaded on the social media platform, ANI reported.

Police sources said the inquiry is being done to identify the authors of the ‘Toolkit’ which was shared on Google Docs.

“The police are going to write to Google to get the IP address or the location from where the doc was made and uploaded on the social media platform. This is being done to identify the authors of the toolkit which was shared on the Google Doc,” a source said.

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Delhi Police Special Commissioner Praveer Ranjan on Thursday said the police had registered a case against creators of ‘Toolkit’ and no one had been named in the FIR.

Eleven rounds of talks between farmer leaders and the Centre have failed to break the deadlock over their demands on MSP and repeal of The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers Empowerment and Protection Agreement on Price Assurance and Agricultural Services Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.