We as human beings have faced a lot since the world got locked down in 2020. We saw:
- The bushfires in Australia, which started the year in January – March 2020,
- Floods in Indonesia,
- Volcano eruption in Philippines,
- Earthquakes in Turkey, China, Iran, Russia, the Philippines, and India.
- Locust swarms in East Africa, parts of India, and Asia. Cyclone Amphan in India and Bangladesh And these are all-natural disasters that costed god knows how many lives and money. And the man-made disasters like the Russian oil tanker that burst in October or the one that burst in December 2020 in UAE are not even in the counting.
One good thing that did come out of 2020 was that trump was no longer in power.
Let’s get closer to home now.
The world is witnessing the biggest protest in the history of mankind as we speak today which started roughly in October 2020.
The farmer’s protest in India
The farmer’s bill, which was passed, the facts remain that the two bills had already cleared the lower house – the Lok Sabha. When they were introduced in the Rajya Sabha, there was a ruckus and finally the Bill was passed through a voice vote. We should not forget how the audio was muted on our television channels and the aye’s were ignored and nay’s were preferred Distortion by the media!
So the bills are:
- The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020:
According to this Bill, the farmers can sell their produce outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) regulated markets. These markets are government-controlled marketing yards or mandis. So, the farmers tend to have more choice as to whom they can sell their products to. As per, economic expert Gurcharan Das, the government’s logic, is that the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) is an obsolete institution from an age of scarcity, meant to protect the farmer, but has now become his oppressor, a monopoly cartel fixing low prices for the farmers’ produce, forcing distress sales.
- The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020:
This Bill makes provisions for the setting up of a framework for contract farming. Contract farming can be defined as an agreement between farmers and processing and/or marketing firms for the production and supply of agricultural products forwarding agreements, frequently at predetermined prices. Already seen what contract farming has done in the past to the farmers in Maharashtra. They have committed suicides in mass numbers as contract farming has led to hoarding of produce, asking for low produce prices, and cancellation of contracts by these big corporate companies. The climate and soil, not being conducive, also leads to the many reasons for not meeting the deadlines and as a result, the entire burden of the crop comes on the poor farmer’s shoulders. And other amenities are not even being counted here as the water flow, the electricity, compensation for unseasonal rains are not even being counted.
According to PRS India, a “Standing Committee on Agriculture (2018-19)” observed the APMC laws needed reforms as cartelization had begun to crystallise due to a limited number of traders in APMC mandis. Hence, the following law was passed in September 2020.
- The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020:
- The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 allows intrastate and interstate trade of farmers’ produce beyond the physical premises of APMC markets. State governments are prohibited from levying any market fee, cess, or levy outside APMC areas.
How will the Bills benefit the farmers?
The ideology that has been put before us is, that the laws:- - Defeat the monopoly cartel at the APMC mandi and sell the produce anywhere to anyone
- Will Bypass the Essential Commodities Act and
- The farmers will be free to store inventory which was constrained so far by stocking limits of ESCA.
- The farmers will be free to make contracts and transfer risk to businessmen in deals made over a crop even before yield is made or met, which as we have already observed in the case Maharashtra has worked against the favour of the farmers.
Why are the farmers upset?
The farmers of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana are angry with the provisions of these Bills as they are afraid that these Bills may be the platform that the government (at the Centre) is setting up for the replacement or scrapping of the otherwise robust support system prevalent in their states for the purchase of their crops.
23 crops have MSPs, though the governments, primarily buy only rice and wheat. Farmers fear the two recent bills as they feel these agriculture reform processes will kill the government procurement process as well as the MSP.
Rice is a water-intensive crop and farmers from areas with water shortage to grow it as there is an MSP assured in the end. Continued adoption of the rice-wheat cropping system in North-Western plains of Punjab, Haryana, and West Uttar Pradesh has resulted in depletion of groundwater and deterioration of soil quality, posing a serious threat to its sustainability,” says a government study.
Also, these Farm Bills are encouraging farmers to strike deals with large corporates, and farmers do not trust corporates.
The farmers have wanted the government to pass new legislation that makes MSP a legal right. The Punjab assembly has already passed such a law, but it is still to get the assent of the president. Even if the assent does come, it remains unclear how the law will be implemented.
This demand for such legislation is not new and dates back to 2018 when farmer agitations had spread far and wide across the country – the Kisan long march to Mumbai, protest march to parliament in Delhi.
In August 2018, for the first time, a law to this effect was brought into parliament as a private member Bill by Raju Shetty, who was then a member of parliament.
This bill was not discussed in the parliament.
After 2018, farmer protests died down and have resurfaced now. The demand to make MSP a legal right is once again on the table and farmer leaders have said that the protests will not end until this demand is met.
The Centre has said that it will provide a “written assurance” that the existing procurement mechanism will continue.
Till now, no written assurance has come into being by the government
What happened on 26 January 2021?
Facts:-
A peaceful march by the farmers was planned whereby the whole nation was showering them with love and affection and support as they walked by on the streets of the capital of the nation.
Then why is it that the farmers who are civilians, were tear-gassed at Nangloi? Barricades were broken, protestors were lathi-charged and tear-gassed, and a farmer had died.
The fact remains that there were no acts of vandalism by lakhs and lakhs of farmers. No harm was caused to any historical monuments. There was no destruction caused by them, neither did they set fire to the properties nor did they loot and riot. They rode their tractors peacefully.
But behold, we find out that a mob that went to the red fort was instigated. Perhaps they were outsiders. Perhaps they were instigated and led by someone who is a part of the reigning government.
Also, another fact that comes into play is why, the red fort, which has been properly barricaded and has security, on this particular day is not guarded that too on republic day! (Read suspicion).
Read the following articles bestowed on every single citizen of India by the constitution of India, which are mentioned below, and then read them again:
Article 14 – ‘Protection of life and liberty and equality before the law – No person shall be deprived of his life or liberty except according to the procedure established by law, nor shall any person be denied equality before the law or the equal protection of the law within the territory of India.’
Article 19 – ‘Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech etc.’
(1) All citizens shall have the right
(a) to freedom of speech and expression;
(b) to assemble peaceably and without arms;
(c) to form associations or unions;
(d) to move freely throughout the territory of India;
(e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; and
(f) omitted
(g) to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade, or business
There are two young girls aged 21 & 22 in today’s date held in police custody, Nodeep Kaur and Disha Ravi who are activists remotely associated with the cause. One was a laborer affected by the crisis of COVID-19 who had to take up a job in a factory to feed her family. She raised her voice because she wasn’t getting paid and she mentioned how the essential commodities act would affect the labor laws. The other was an environmental activist who happened to post on social media platforms about the farmer’s toolkit.
How then? How is India, the world’s largest democracy?
What are we doing as citizens of India?
We have faced numerous calamities, wars, natural disasters as a human race and we must all come together in supporting our fellow citizens who are asking to be heard so that they can continue to live a life of dignity.
We have to come together to make sure that our feeders don’t turn into beggars. And like they say, an industry that feeds you is an industry worth fighting for.
Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress. Working together is a success.
– Henry Ford
References:-
www.Thewire.in
www.Constitutionofindia.com
www.Timesofindia.com
www.theprint.in
About the author –
This article has been written by Adv. Irika G. Jyoti, Completed LL.B from National Law University, Jodhpur.
