Morning Pulse: Cane march pauses on a midnight promise as Shivakumar turns to Modi

Karnataka's longest-running protest stopped overnight, but only for now. Sugarcane growers who had walked for five days from Belagavi towards Union Minister Pralhad Joshi's home in Hubballi agreed to suspend their march after he met their leaders around midnight. A few hours earlier, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said he had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an appointment on cane prices and the drought. Both moves point the same way. The growers' main demands sit with the Centre, so this morning's question is whether a promise of a committee is enough to keep them off the road.

TV9 Kannada reported that Joshi met eight farmer leaders at the Inspection Bungalow in Hubballi late on Sunday. Among them were Chunappa Pujari, who leads the agitation, and Shashikant Guruji. MP Jagadish Shettar, the Dharwad Deputy Commissioner and police officers were also present. The leaders pressed for a higher minimum selling price for sugar, permission for commercial sugar sales and an ethanol price of Rs 100, according to TV9. Joshi asked for time to form a committee, carry out a survey and obtain a report from the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices before deciding. Public TV quoted him as saying the government was committed to meeting the demands on the basis of a committee report. It quoted Pujari as saying the minister had promised a decision soon.

Kannada Prabha, carried by Asianet Suvarna News, gave a second account of how the march ended. It said Belagavi Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Roshan addressed the marchers at Teguru village in Dharwad district. He told them he would take responsibility for getting their demands addressed and that sugar factories would not start crushing until the issue was resolved. Pujari then announced the suspension, the paper said. The growers want Rs 5,500 a tonne for cane. On Sunday evening, before the talks, Pujari had threatened a mass rally on October 22 if the Centre rejected the demands, The Federal Karnataka reported. No date for a decision was announced, and the leaders have said the agitation will resume if nothing comes soon.

In Mysuru on Sunday, Shivakumar said he wanted the Prime Minister to meet an all-party delegation that includes opposition leaders, PTI reported via ThePrint. He again urged the farmers to call off their protest. Asked whether the state should add to a higher support price, he said the matter could be discussed, according to PTI. UNI reported that he planned to appeal to opposition leaders to join the delegation. PTI listed the growers' demands as Rs 5,500 a tonne for cane, a minimum selling price of Rs 60 a kilo for sugar and a revised ethanol price.

The same remarks turned sharply political. Responding to BJP and JD(S) claims that their alliance will form the government in 2028, Shivakumar recalled H D Kumaraswamy's old pledge to dissolve the JD(S) if it failed to win a majority, PTI and UNI reported. In Davanagere, former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa called the Congress government arrogant and said it had failed people hit by the drought, according to PTI, carried by Vartha Bharati. He alleged that Shivakumar and other leaders had worked to make Siddaramaiah step down. News Karnataka noted that he gave no specific evidence. We found no Congress reply to that allegation in the reports we read.

The talk of 2028 comes days before a smaller contest. Polling for four Legislative Council seats is on Thursday, October 23: Bengaluru Teachers, West Graduates, South-East Graduates and North-East Teachers. Vartha Bharati and Eesanje reported on October 12 that 43 candidates are in the fray and votes will be counted on October 27. Congress is contesting all four seats. In the NDA, the BJP is contesting three and the JD(S) one.

Two loops from Friday's Pulse are still open. We found no report that the state has filed its appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court ruling on the SC/ST quota hike. On the sting operation, we found no report that the Chief Minister has moved the probe to a special investigation team, even though Kumaraswamy's two-day deadline to the police ran out over the weekend.