Repealing Farm Laws Plan Or Pressure
On Guru Parv November 19th PM Modi surprised the nation when he announced that his government had taken the decision to repeal the three farm laws.
About a year the agricultural laws were passed after completing the entire parliamentary process. It was claimed by the Modi government that these agricultural laws were brought to improve the condition of farmers after talking to many people including experts, agricultural scientists related to the agriculture sector. On the 27th of September, the President of India gave his assent on passing the three agriculture bills also known as the farmer bills. These three bills include:
80 out of every 100 farmers in the country are small farmers. They have less than 2 hectares of land. Their number is more than 10 crores. The government is continuously taking one step after the other in the interest of farmers, especially small farmers. The procurement of crops by the government has broken all the records of the last decades.
Currently, the agricultural sector contributes up to 16% of Indian GDP at current prices. In the earlier decades, agriculture was the primary source for the nation to earn revenue. However, the GDP contribution of agriculture sector has decreased drastically over the last few decades.
Accordingly, three agricultural bills were passed that provided more autonomy to independent farmers and made the agricultural sector efficient in its working.
Under the first policy, farmers will experience increased freedom while selling agricultural produce without facing barriers for inter-state trade and trade within the state. Farmers will also experience financial freedom because they will not have to pay any levy on such trading.
The second policy allows farmers to trade with corporates in a highly competitive market and make increasing profit for their goods. Price assurance will be given to farmers before sowing seeds and they will enjoy additional profits if market price is high. Thus, the burden of market unpredictability is shifted from farmer to wealthy corporations.
The third policy suggests that government may regulate supply, distribution and trade of essential commodities such as onions, cereals, oils, etc. only under extraordinary circumstances. These circumstances include: War, Famine, Extraordinary Price Rise and Natural Calamities of Harsh Nature. According to the Procurement Policy, the Food Corporation of India would continue to operate as before and buy food grains from the farmers at the MSP.
The three new agricultural laws were approved by the Lok Sabha on September 17, 2020. The President signed the proposal of the three laws on 27 September. Since then, farmers' organizations started agitation against agricultural laws. The farmers' movement that started from Punjab-Haryana reached the border of Delhi by 26 November, 2020. It turned violent several times. Who can forget the violence that took place in many areas of Delhi including the Red Fort on January 26, 2021. The situation started deteriorating after the farmers' movement, which started from Punjab against these agricultural laws, reached the borders of Delhi. Gradually, the impact of the peasant movement spread to Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh as well. The protesting farmers had even reached the Supreme Court to make their point heard.
It cannot be denied that the peasant movement was getting full political support. From the chaos in Delhi on 26 January to the killing of a Dalit youth on the Singhu border, no stone was left unturned in doing politics on behalf of the several parties. Anti-India elements were trying to take advantage of the farmers' demonstration against the three agricultural laws. Such elements wanted to create a rift between the communities.
The Agricultural Bills aimed to reduce the hazards caused by middlemen, encourage trade relations between farmers and corporates and increase technology in the field of agriculture. The government has no plans of scrapping MSP. By participating in open market system, farmers will enjoy benefit of MSP as well as profits provided the market price decided by demand-supply dynamics. The Mandis, too will remain open and farmers will have other places to sell their produce. The e-NAM trading method is functional in mandis that makes the process time-saving and most importantly, transparent.
Experts are telling that the BJP government at the Center is targeting many targets with the announcement of this return. The party has started trying to reduce the resentment among the farmers by withdrawing the Agriculture Act. Uttar Pradesh is very important for the party.
Even though the agriculture law was repealed, many questions are also being asked by political pundits. Is it a plan or pressure? Was the decision taken out of fear of defeat in the UP elections? Has the government taken care of the farmers too late? Has the government rectified its mistake or is this a master stroke of PM Modi? Economists widely agree that India’s agricultural sector needs an overhaul.
