Farm laws to go after yr of protest
PM Modi says Union govt tried hard but failed to convey the benefits of legislation to section of farmers
NEW DELHI: In a surprise speech to the nation on Friday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government would repeal three agricultural laws enacted last year that set off protests by tens of thousands of farmers across several states, and on Delhi’s borders.
Opposition parties were quick to label the decision a victory for the farmers and a defeat for the government; the protesting farm groups said they plan to hold out for more, including a codification of the price at which the government buys agricultural produce; and analysts pointed to the continuing need to reform agriculture which, in its present form, remains mostly uncompetitive and unremunerative.
The decision to scrap the laws comes ahead of crucial state elections in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, and Punjab, where farmers are an influential voting bloc.
In a nationally televised address to farmers on the birth anniversary of Sikhism’s revered founder, Guru Nanak, the Prime Minister said: “Today, while apologising to the people of the country, I want to say with a pure heart, that maybe there was some shortcoming in our efforts that we could not explain to some of our farmer brothers a truth that was as clear as a flame. Today on Guru Nanak’s birthday, it is not time to blame anyone... Today I have come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to withdraw all three agricultural laws.”
A sizeable section of the protesting farmers is from Sikh-majority Punjab.
“In the Parliament session starting later this month, we will complete the constitutional process to repeal these three agricultural laws,” Modi added, urging protesting farmers to return home to their families.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella platform for farm unions, said it welcomed the move but that the battle was only half won, referring to the farmers’ yet-unmet demand for a law guaranteeing minimum support prices (MSPs) for their produce. MSPs are state-assured floor rates meant to help avoid distress sale.
Reacting to the PM’s announcement, Rakesh Tikait, a key leader behind the protests and a leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, said: “We are not immediately withdrawing the protests. We will wait and watch to see what actually happens. Also, we want a law on MSP.”
Farm unions, largely from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been holding yearlong sit-ins at four sites near Delhi’s borders: Singhu, Ghaziabad, Tikri, Dhansa and also at Shahjahanpur (on the Rajasthan-Haryana border).
The farm bodies managed to keep the protests largely apolitical, despite support from many opposition parties. On Friday, these parties congratulated the farmers for their victory.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said the “country’s ‘annadatas’ (food providers) have made arrogance bow its head through satyagraha”. “Con
gratulations on this victory against injustice! ‘Jai Hind, Jai Hind ka Kisan’,” Gandhi said.
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated the farmers for their relentless fight, saying they were not fazed by the “cruelty” of the BJP. “My heartfelt congratulations to every single farmer who fought relentlessly and were not fazed by the cruelty with which @BJP4India treated you. This is YOUR VICTORY! My deepest condolences to everyone who lost their loved ones in this fight. #FarmLaws,” Banerjee tweeted. The Prime Minister said the laws, enacted in September 2020, would have brought longterm benefits and opened up more markets for farmers to sell their produce, but rued that his government could not convince a section of farmers.
“Our intent [in passing the laws] was pure,” he added, “but we could not convince some farmers. We tried our best to explain these laws to the farmers. The government was ready to rework these laws.”
Farmers were deeply sceptical of the laws they said will leave them at the mercy of big corporations, which could force down prices. They also feared the changes would dismantle a system of state-backed regulated markets which offered assured farm prices.
The government saw the laws as helping enlarge the market for farm produce, and also increase the role of the private sector in agriculture.
Farm leaders such as Tikait, once supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), began to increasingly target the Modi government’s entire economic agenda, labelling recent moves to divest state-run companies as a “sell-off”.
Soon after the announcement on Friday, the SKM said it was preparing to summon its decision-making team. Gurnam Singh Chaduni, a farm leader from Haryana, said preparations to mark a year of the protests on November 26 would continue. Leaders such as Chaduni and Tikait bolstered the farm protests by bringing it out of Punjab and expanding its sphere of influence.
The agitation against the three laws to liberalise agricultural trade widened into a fullscale campaign against the BJP by influential farm unions in food-bowl states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. “We have several mahapanchyats (farmers’ rallies) in UP and Haryana. As of now, we will go ahead with them,” Chaduni said.
The government held 11 rounds of negotiations, the last on January 22, which failed to resolve the crisis. On January 12, the Supreme Court put a moratorium on the laws, following which the government said it would freeze the law for oneand-half years. “It is a victory for democracy but a partial victory. We had two demands, one [was to] repeal the three laws. Second, give us a legal guarantee of minimum support price, something the prime minister had himself demanded when he was chief minister of Gujarat,” said Yogendra Yadav, one of the main organisers of the protests. “That has not been considered yet. That struggle will go on.”
The government in the past has argued the changes will not alter an existing state-backed system of regulated markets which give farmers assured prices, but would boost investments in the farm economy. Nearly half the population in Asia’s third largest economy depends on a farm-derived income.The laws aimed to ease restrictions on trade in farm produce, allow food traders to stockpile large stocks of food for future sales and lay down a national framework for contract farming based on written agreement. The three laws are: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance, and Farm Services Act, 2020 and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Anil Jaysing Ghanwat, the leader of Shetkari Sangathana, a Maharashtra-based farm organisation, criticised the decision of the government to roll back the farm laws. Ghanwat was one of the members of a Supreme Court-appointment committee to scrutinise the laws. “The move to repeal the laws is unfortunate for farmers and the country because the laws would have given some market freedom to farmers,” Ghanwat said. To calm farmers, Modi on Friday said that the welfare of the farming community would continue to drive his government. “I announce the formation of a committee to promote zero-budgeting-based agriculture, to change crop pattern as per the changing needs of the country and to make MSP more effective and transparent.”
The committee will be represented by officials from the Union government, state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists and economists, he said. On October 2, the protests entered an aggravated phase in UP when a convoy of vehicles belonging to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra, ploughed through protesters, killing four farmers and four others. The minister’s son has been arrested.
“Farmers had sustained their agitation and this created a certain narrative and awareness across the country that injustice was being done. Since it was an autonomous movement, no political party could take credit for it. This created a space for the government to announce withdrawing the laws,” said KK Kailash, who teaches politics at the University of Hyderabad.
In his address to the nation, the PM Modi also said it was unfortunate that despite the government’s intentions to strengthen and empower farmers particularly those who have small land holdings, many of them were not convinced about the benefits of the laws.
Modi underlined how his government had prioritised welfare of farmers and drafted policies and interventions such as introducing soil health cards, crop insurance and credit cards to empower famers.
“The agriculture budget has been increased five times and a ₹1 lakh crore agriculture infrastructure fund has been set up… to empower smaller farmers… 10,000 FPOs have been started and ₹7,000 crore spent on it,” the Prime Minister said.
Referring to the contentious laws, he said they were brought in with the intention of giving the country’s farmers more strength and better prices for their crops, apart from more options to sell their produce.
“For years, farmers of the country, agricultural experts and farmers’ organizations of the country were continuously making this demand... This time also there was discussion in Parliament, brainstorming took place and these laws were brought up. In every nook and corner of the country, many farmers’ organizations welcomed and supported it,” the PM said.
“Though it’s a small section of farmers who are protesting, but even then, it is important for us. Agri experts and scientists and progressive farmers have tried, made efforts to make them understand with an open mind the importance of agricultural laws...we tried to keep explaining through various means, personal as well as collective” the PM said.