‘Oppn, farmers failed to find faults in farm laws’
NEW DELHI: The marathon 15-hour-long discussion in Rajya Sabha on the motion of thanks to President’s address concluded as scheduled on Friday, with agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar putting up a strong defence of the new farm laws and asserting that the government’s offer to amend them to assuage farmers’ sentiments did not mean they had any flaws and none from the protesting unions or their sympathisers have been able to point out any lacuna.
Countering the Opposition’s claim that farmers across the country are agitated over the three laws, Tomar said that peasants of just one state are being misinformed and instigated.
In an apparent reference to a booklet released by the Congress recently, the minister slammed the party saying: “The world knows water is required for farming. Only Congress can do farming using blood. BJP cannot do this”. Acknowledging that the three laws are currently a burning issue, the senior minister said opposition parties criticised the government and even termed the three legislations as “kala kanun” (black law).
“For two months I kept asking farmer unions what is kala (black) in the laws so that I can try to rectify. But I could not get the answer... Also nobody (from opposition benches) tried to
point out the provisions in the laws which are against farmers,” he said, participating in the discussion during the three-day motion of thanks, in which 50 speakers from as many as 25 parties participated — making it one of the longest such debates with high participation of members.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Samajwadi Party and Left parties who have extended their support to farmers’ demand that the laws be repealed, also attacked the Centre in the Upper House.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut attacked the government for dubbing the farmers as “anti-nationals” and for “defaming” their agitation. Raut alleged that anyone speaking the truth is dubbed as a “traitor” or “anti-national” and that cases of sedition have been slapped against those criticising the government.
Expressing concerns over the violence that broke in the national capital on Republic Day during the farmers’ tractor march, Raut said: “There has been no discussion from the Centre’s side on who was actually behind the violence, but over 200 farmers have been put behind the bar for the same.”
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member Satish Chandra Misra demanded that the government should repeal the three farm laws and also provide legal guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) on all crops. He slammed the government for trying to stop the farmers’ protest and said that the multi-layered barricades, barbed wires and iron nails studded on roads on Delhi’s borders where farmers are protesting as a “human rights violation”.
“I am not able to understand, when you (the government) are ready to suspend the laws for 1.5 years, what is stopping you to withdraw these Acts,” he said.
Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa accused the Centre of passing farm laws at a time when the country was focused on the Covid-19 pandemic to stifle opposition. This was an “undemocratic” manner to pass laws, he said.
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused the Centre of lying about MSP. He said the government claims increasing the MSP for crops and doubling farmers’ income, but data suggests otherwise. “You have also conspired along with capitalist to capture farmers’ land,” he alleged.
Citing data from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Kharge said growth on MSP on paddy (general) under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-I was 10.92% on average and under the UPA-II, it was increased 8.9%, while under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance increase was 4.30% only.
“These are your data and are published,” he said. “For how long you would be lying. How long you would survive by defaming Congress by asking as what it has done in past 60-70 years,” he said.
The government, Tomar stressed on Friday, is committed to welfare of farmers and to the continuation of the mandi system of procurement of crops on MSP-based mechanism. The laws give farmers alternatives to sell their produce outside mandis, and unlike the state government notified market places, such sale would not attract any tax, he said.
Tomar said the government has held several rounds of talks while respecting their protest. He said farmers were asked to tell about problematic provisions in the laws and the government even tried to anticipate their concerns, like on continuation of APMC, and offered solutions. “But farmers are protesting. People in one state are victims of misinformation,” he said.