Farmers Close To Victory As Govt Buckles; CDS Seriously Injured In Crash

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A newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas | Contributors: MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, Sushant Singh and Tanweer Alam | Editor: Pratik Kanjilal

Snapshot of the day

December 8, 2021    

Pratik Kanjilal

Yet another generous helping of humble pie: the government today offered to immediately and unconditionally suspend all cases against farmers, whether for participating in the agitation or for burning stubble. It also assured that a committee on minimum support prices would include only farmers from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, and not unions which supported the farm laws. These were major sticking points in yesterday’s Home Ministry proposal. Farm leaders had sought clarifications on multiple points, including the withdrawal of cases. Until yesterday, the government expected the agitation to be withdrawn first. Five farm leaders of the SKM met this morning to discuss developments, and will travel to Singhu in the afternoon, where they will take a final call. Live updates here. 

Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat was among top military officials aboard an IAF chopper which crashed in Coonoor, killing at least 11, according to some reports. His wife was accompanying him. An inquiry has begun.