#Farmersprotest: Why did govt drop Yogendra Yadav from farmers' talks?

Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav was not included in the farmers' delegation called for talks with the central government on Tuesday. It is being said that the government did not want any political person to be included in it.

According to some farmer leaders Yogendra Yadav was excluded from the delegation due to some unions in Punjab.

On Monday night, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar issued a letter and invited farmers unions for talks at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Tuesday at 3 pm. Narendra Singh Tomar had said that those who had joined the talks on November 13 have been called for talks again. Last month, only Punjab's farmer unions were called for talks.

According to report, only the leaders of Punjab had received calls from senior bureaucrats and the BJP leaders have been unofficially talking on the phone for the last few days.

However, on Tuesday, the farmers unions of Punjab decided that an all-India protest is being held under the banner of United Kisan Morcha and everyone should be included in the talks.

The coordination committee of this front is a seven-member comprising three leaders from Punjab and Yogendra Yadav, besides Bharatiya Kisan Union's Gurnam Singh Chaudhary, Shiv Kumar Kakaji of the National Kisan Mahasangh along with Hannan Mollah of All India Kisan Sabha.

Yogendra Yadav told The Hindu, "Amit Shah himself spoke to the leaders of Punjab and said that Yogendra Yadav cannot be included because he is the head of a political party. The leaders of Punjab were ready to boycott the talks on the basis of the expulsion of me, but I told them that I want to stay away from the talks. ''

According to the newspaper report, some farmer groups and leaders quoted Yogendra Yadav as saying that initially they had requested the protesters to shift from the border to Burari Maidan.

This made people angry with Yogendra Yadav. Apart from this, there was resentment that there was more media presence around Yogendra Yadav and some other national leaders, while he mobilized only a handful of protesters.

On the other hand, the central government only talked to the Punjab unions to show that only one state is being politically motivated and protested. People of other states were also involved in the talks held on Tuesday.