Indian farmers receive new government offer, may call off protest

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s protesting farmers have received a revised proposal from the government addressing some of their pending demands such as a new law to secure government prices for crops beyond rice and wheat, farm union leaders said on Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of farmers have staged their long-running protests to persuade Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal three agriculture laws from late 2020. Last month, Modi made a surprise u-turn, saying he would roll them back.

Despite Modi’s climbdown, farmers have continued to press the government to meet other demands such as Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for all produce.

“We’ve received a revised proposal from the government. We’ve accepted the proposal, and a consensus has emerged,” Samyukta Kisan Morcha, or United Farmers’ Front, a coalition of farmers unions, said in a statement.

Farm union leaders will meet again on Thursday to take a call on calling off the protest, the statement said.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav and Mayank Bhardwaj, Editing by Louise Heavens)