The eleventh round of talks between the government and the farmers have also ended in a deadlock, with both sides feeling more distrust against each other and no sign of a thaw. The government has made it clear that what it has offered is the best it can, while the farmers have resolved to continue with their Republic Day tractor parade rehearsal, just as the contingents taking part in the R-Day Parade on Rajpath and the India Gate lawsare giving final touches to the show. The parallel rallyists have said their show will not clash with the official parade and even asked the government to ensure that their programme is conducted peacefully.

Unlike the earlier rounds, the eleventh round ended even without setting a date for the next meeting. So much for the progress achieved. The farmers say there were made to wait for three and a half hours for a meeting that lasted just about 30 minutes. So, both sides see little point in continuing the process as the situation has reached a point of no return or going forward.

A detached view of the whole thing would suggest that the government has only itself to blame for the botched talks. It had bungled the negotiations with the agitation leaders right from the beginning. The government has gone a long way to make an offer to keep the controversial new laws for a period of two years, but even such an offer has failed to satisfy the farmers, who are prepared for nothing short of a complete repeal of the laws.

Probably, half good an offer like this in the early phase of the agitation would have brought the farmers round to a settlement. But the government’ fist pumping in the air all along led to further hardening of the stand on the part of the farmers, who have kept raising the pitch every time the government seemed to yield a little ground. Having held out so strongly so far, the farmers must be feeling ever more emboldened.

It is apparent that ego has played a bigger role in the government-farmer talks than the ergonomics of negotiations. The farmers have been seeking to speak to Modi directly, rather than his ministers in whom they have little trust, but the prime minister has been talking to everyone about the farmers other than the farmers themselves. For no apparent valid reason, that seems to have become a matter of prestige for both sides.

The absence of a unified leadership for the agitation has made it that much more difficult for the government to deal with the problem. If there were only a handful of groups or leaders, the government, with Amit Shah and company with their wily games, would have won the agitation leadership over, but with a loose confederation of leadership for the agitationists, in which no single group has a predominant positon or role, the government finds itself with limited options.

It has tried to split the groups thorough various means, but has not succeeded as the farmers groups form an unwieldy number that is not easy to manipulate. The government even introduced the Khalistani angle to the agitation, but it has not produced the desired results. Leaders named by National Investigation Agency as Khalistani agents have refused to present themselves before the cops as demanded and it may be too early to say how the charge will play out in the days to come.

The farmers have now alleged attempts by the government and the police to plant infiltrators among the agitating farmers to foment trouble and even incite violence so as to create law and order problems. The farmers have already caught hold of someone, who according to them, has been planted by the Haryana police to shoot the farm leaders, the full details of which are yet to emerge.

It would be most unfortunate if the agitation turns violent in the days to come, after remaining by and large peaceful all this while, despite provocations on the part of the police, particularly in the BJP-ruled Haryana.(IPA Service)