Editor's Pick: What's the Centre's plan on farmer protest?

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

The Central government has invited the various farmers' unions protesting at the Delhi-Haryana border points for talks today. The farmers, who amassed at the border after their Dilli Chalo march against new farm laws was halted by the Delhi Police, are yet to accept the invitation, which has been extended only to farmers unions from Punjab.

Earlier, the Centre had set the talks for December 3, on the condition that the farmers move the protest from the border points to the ground in Burari within Delhi. The farmers had rejected the condition, seeing it as an attempt to stymie the protest. After several high-level meetings in the government and unofficial communications with the farmer leaders, the Centre has now set the meeting for today afternoon without any conditions.

The invitation came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi doubled down on the farm laws, saying that they were for the betterment of the farmers and that the protesters were being misled by the opposition. Allegations are also being raised that the protests are only by farmers from Congress-ruled Punjab. The online sphere is also seeing efforts to portray the protesters as Khalistani separatists. The farmers have denied these allegations and farmer groups from various States have voiced their support for the protests. However, other States are yet to see the groundswell of protest similar to that in Punjab and Haryana. These two states are the most dependent on the Minimum Support Price regime, which the protesters say is threatened by the new farm laws. Farmer unions from BJP-ruled Haryana, however, have not been invited for talks by the government.

The Prime Minister's support for the farm laws makes any immediate modifications to them by the government unlikely. His allegations of opposition activities, and the government's focus on Punjab unions make the story important.