| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Talks between farmers' groups and govt. remain inconclusive The government on Tuesday offered to set up a committee to look into the issues raised by farmers protesting against new farm laws, but it was rejected by the representatives of the 35 agitating organisations who met with three union ministers. The Centre then asked farmers' bodies to identify specific issues related to the three new farm laws and submit those by Wednesday for consideration and discussion in the next round of talks on Thursday, an official statement said. At the nearly three-hour-long meeting at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was accompanied by Railways and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, also an MP from Punjab. The meeting remained inconclusive and the government has called for another round of discussions on December 3, union leaders said. Government officials said the dialogue would continue and the next round of talks has been scheduled for Thursday. Sources said the farmer representatives were unanimous in seeking repeal of the three laws that they have been terming as being against the interest of the farm community. The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the Centre's farm laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates. The government has maintained that the new laws will bring farmers better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture. Sources said the ministers were of the view that it was difficult to reach a decision while interacting with such large groups and therefore they suggested meeting with a smaller group, but the farmer leaders were firm that they would meet collectively only. Union leaders said they feared the government might be trying to break their unity and the momentum of their protest. Peaceful sit-ins by farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, continued at the Singhu and Tikri borders with no untoward incident reported after Friday's violence, while the numbers of protestors swelled at the Ghazipur border on Monday. The opposition parties too stepped up the pressure, asking the Centre to "respect the democratic struggle" of the farmers and repeal the laws. MEA decries Justin Trudeau's comments on farmers protests  Official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava. The Canadian leadership's comments on the ongoing agitation by farmers are "ill-formed", an official of the Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday. The Indian response came hours after Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country has contacted Indian authorities "through multiple means" to express concern about the protesting farmers. "We have seen some ill-informed comments by Canadian leaders relating to farmers in India. Such comments are unwarranted, especially when pertaining to the internal affairs of a democratic country," said Official Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava in response to a media query. Trudeau had earlier said in a video message that the news about the protest unfolding around Delhi "is concerning". "We are all very worried about family and friends... Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protesters," he said, announcing that Canada has reached out to the Government of India regarding the protests. Canada has a sizeable and influential diaspora of migrants from Punjab. In response, to the Canadian Prime Minister's comments, Srivastava said, "It is also best that diplomatic conversations are not misrepresented for political purposes." In some sections of social media, the MEA's response drew comparisons with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sloganeering of "Abki baar, Trump sarkar" at an event in Houston September 2019, which may also be construed as a foreign leader interfering in another country's internal affairs. Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan tweeted, "I am happy that Canadian PM Trudeau has spoken out for Right to Protest in a democracy & for our farmers' rights. It is important for all leaders worldwide to stand up for democratic rights of people in all nations. Those saying that this is an internal matter have got it all wrong." Police stop Bilkis Bano, Shaheen Bagh's 'Dadi', from joining farmers' protest Bilkis Bano, the octogenarian who had become the face of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Bill protests at Shaheen Bagh, was picked up by the police from the farmers' protest at the Delhi Haryana border, and escorted back to her home. "We are daughters of farmers. We'll go to support farmers' protest today. They supported us during the protests in Shaheen Bagh, and now we are here for them. We urge the government to roll back the new farm laws," Bano had said, before being detained by the police. "She was stopped at the Singhu Border and was escorted by the police back to her home in southeast Delhi," a senior police officer said. All-party meet on vaccines: Parties with less than 10 MPs won't be allowed to speak  Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits a facility of biotech firm Bharat Biotech on the outskirts of Hyderabad on November 28, 2020 to review development of indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin. During the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 4 on the subject of Covid-19 and distribution of vaccines, only parties with more than 10 members in Parliament will be allowed to speak. The smaller parties have to be silent participants. The meeting was called after Modi's Saturday visit to three vaccine-manufacturing facilities — Zydus Cadila in Ahmedabad, Serum Institute of India in Pune, and Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad. Earlier too, for the several videoconference meetings with chief ministers, the Prime Minister's Office had drafted the schedule in such a way that different states got to speak on different dates, instead of opting for an open discussion on the subject. With the 10-MP criteria, many regional parties will not get an opportunity to air their opinion, including Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, and the two Left parties, the CPI (M) and the CPI. CPI Parliamentary Party leader Binoy Viswam has written a letter to Modi urging him to reconsider this decision of not allowing those with less than 10 MPs to speak in the meeting. The NCP, which has five members in the Lok Sabha and four in the Rajya Sabha, falls short of the PMO's criteria by one member. "If a person like Sharad Pawar is not allowed to speak, then I believe such a meeting will lack direction and clarity. And not only on vaccines, there is a need for a thorough discussion of all the fallouts of the pandemic, including the state of the economy," senior NCP leader Praful Patel said. "This is definitely not the right way to go about it. In our democracy if every vote matters, then every Member of Parliament and every political party should matter. The political strength may vary from election to election. That should not be reason to curtail our participation," TDP's Lok Sabha Chief Whip K. Rammohan Naidu said. China and Pakistan sign military deal amid tensions with India  China's Defence Minister Wei Fenghe. File. China and Pakistan on Monday signed a new memorandum of understanding to boost their already close military relations, as China's Defence Minister and People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Wei Fenghe visited the headquarters of the Pakistani army in Rawalpindi. Gen. Wei called on Pakistan's Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the General Headquarters, and both discussed "matters of mutual interest, regional security and enhanced bilateral defence collaboration", Pakistani media reported. The two sides also discussed on-going projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), in which the Pakistani military is playing an increasingly prominent role. Prior to Gen. Wei's visit, recently appointed Chinese envoy to Pakistan Nong Rong conducted a "comprehensive review" of the CPEC projects along with former Pakistan Army Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, who is heading the CPEC Authority. While details of the new MoU signed by the two militaries were not immediately available, it follows another agreement signed last year, when China's Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) General Xu Qiliang visited Rawalpindi for defence cooperation and "capacity building of the Pakistan Army". Gen. Wei's visit followed his day-long visit to Nepal, where he was the highest ranking Chinese official to visit since President Xi Jinping's visit in October last year. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments  This handout photo shows samples of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, in Moscow. File The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 94,83,073 at the time of writing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,79,818. With the entire country waiting anxiously for a vaccine, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan today said the government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country. "I just want to make this clear that the government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country. It's important that we discuss such scientific issues, based on factual information only," Bhushan said, in response to a question about vaccine access for everyone in the country. "Vaccination would depend on the efficacy of the vaccine and our purpose is to break the chain of virus transmission. If we're able to vaccinate a critical mass of people and break virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population," said Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Balram Bhargava, who was also present at the presser. Bhushan also clarified that the initial findings into an 'adverse event' allegedly suffered by an Oxford Covid-19 vaccine trial participant in Chennai did not necessitate halting of the trials and that the vaccine timelines will not be affected. In Brief: Attorney General KK Venugopal on Tuesday gave his consent for initiation of contempt proceedings against cartoonist Rachita Taneja, the creator of webcomic Sanitary Panels. The case against Taneja concerns two tweets about the Supreme Court's recent decision to grant interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in an abetment to suicide case. Venugopal said her tweets were an "audacious assault and insult to the institution". Dr. Scott Atlas has resigned as special adviser to President Donald Trump, after a controversial four months during which he clashed repeatedly with other members of the coronavirus task force. "I am writing to resign from my position as special adviser to the president of the United States," Atlas said in a letter to Trump dated December 1 that he posted on Twitter. Public health experts, including Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, have sharply criticised Atlas, a neuroradiologist, for providing Trump with misleading or incorrect information on the virus pandemic. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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