It is a common belief that new laws will open corridors for au courant sale and marketing of agricultural products outside the usual Agricultural produce market comittee (APMC) bazaar or mandi for farmers.
These laws can further help in allowing inter-state trade and encourage voluntary electronic trading of agricultural yield. New laws will prevent the state governments from collecting a market fee, any levy for trade outside the APMC markets, leading farmers to believe in the fact that new laws will “gradually end the mandi system” and “leave farmers at the mercy of corporate”.
The protest got fuelled up from the advent of new Agricultural bill 2020, now it has spread it’s clasps all through out Haryana, Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh and other states. In some places there are traces of unpropitious involvement of ruling party.
The following reactions are observed on different instances; On 17 September, the Food Processing Industries Union Minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from her post in protest against the bills. On 30 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns over the issue of misled and radicalized farmers. He stated that “the farmers are being deceived on these historic agriculture reform laws by the same people who have misled them for decades.”, citing numerous times opposition members were convicted of spreading lies. Modi added that the old system was not being replaced, but instead that new options were being put forward for the farmers. Several Union Ministers also made statements to this effect. On 1 December, Independent MLA Somveer Sangwan withdrew support from the Bharatiya Janata Party government in haryana. The BJP’s ally jananayak janta Party (JJP) also asked the central government to consider giving a “written assurance of the continuation of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.
Demand’s of the protesting farmers:
Farmer’s demand to invalidate the three new farm laws – The farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation)act, The farmer’s (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act. Besides they want to convene a special Parliament session to repeal the farm laws and make Minimum Support Price (MSP) and state procurement of crops a legal right.To boot, farmers pester assurances that conventional procurement system will remain. Reckoning up they yearn to implement Swaminathan Panel Report and peg MSP at least 50% more than weighted average cost of production.Release of arrested farmers for burning paddy stubble in Punjab.Henceforth, withdrawal of all cases against and release of farmer leaders.
Farmers demand the government to roll back the ordinances. They wish to protect APMCs across the country. At this point, according to the experts, it is preferred that the government makes. MSP mandatory (inside and outside of APMC mandis), i.e, mandating MSP as the floor price of the crop. As per RBI’s reports (2016), only 0.4% GDP of the country is invested in the agriculture sector, which is absurd as it is the largest sector. The government must invest more in the agriculture field for the betterment of farmers and the country as a whole. If these bills are a boon or a bane for the country’s farmers is a controversial question. Though farmers are assuming all the potential downfalls of the move, let’s see how this bill withstand with the hopes of the country men?
