Farmers moved to the country capital and are protesting against 3 farm bills and blaming the central government for framing “anti-farmers” law. The farmers have jammed all the borders that connect Delhi to neighboring states.
Even after 4 rounds of meetings and hours of talks with the government officials, the farmers are still rampant about their needs and demands
Introduction:
India has always been an agriculture rich country. About 70% of India’s population is dependent upon the Agriculture products and it constitutes almost one third of the country’s GDP. Surely it’s a very important part of our society as it contributes both economically and socially to our nation. This year on 20th September 2020, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the three most controversial bills brought up this year, the 3 “Agriculture Bills” which interestingly was passed way before by the Parliament during the lockdown phase! These bills were:
1. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
2. Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020.
3. Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.[1]
It is worth noting that two of these bills have already been passed in the Lok Sabha or the lower house and when they were introduced in the Rajya Sabha it was passed through voice votes after a lot of chaos and drama. The given bill has created a sense of agitation and insecurity among the rice and wheat growing farmers, majorly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These farmers moved to the country capital and are protesting against these bills and blaming the central government for framing “anti-farmers” law. The farmers have jammed all the borders that connect Delhi to neighboring states.
Even after 4 rounds of meetings and hours of talks with the government officials, the farmers are still rampant about their needs and demands. The government assures that MSPs will not be abolished and will still be in market, but the farmers are still fixed on their demands to scrap the 3 bills. To know all the facts and scenarios let us closely and briefly understand what all these bills are about.
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020:
This particular bill talks about making provisions and lay down certain frameworks to establish contract farming. Such a framework will help in formation of contracts between the buyers and farmers regarding the deal even before the production of the requisite crops happens. The government believes that this bill will act as a reform because due to the limited number of traders in the government authorised mandis the phase of cartelization had slowly begun. Therefore in order to stop the same, the government passed this law in the parliament in the month of September 2020.
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020:
Before this bills farmers were required to sell their produce only to the government set up mandis also known as the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets. It is claimed that after the implementation of this bill the farmers are empowered to sell their produce anywhere and to anyone in the market, they are no more constrained to sell in the mandis. The government believes that APMC markets have become fixed distress sales markets which have restricted the sales and income of the farmers limited and hence have become a means of exploitation to the farmers.
The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020:
Under this bill the farmers will be empowered to sell their Agriculture Produce in the other states rather than their very own state, i.e. It allows farmers to conduct both inter-state and Inter-state trade of their Agriculture Produce. This will allow them to move out of their restricted APMC markets and allow them to sell their produce to other states where they can get better price and earnings. Along with this the state will not be allowed to charge any sort of market cess or fees from the farmers who come to sell outside there APMC markets.
How will these Bills benefit the Farmers?
The government and the well Learned economists believe that after the implementation of these laws the farmers can be benefited by the following ways:
The farmers will be free to form contracts with traders and businessmen to make deals of their crops even before the beginning of the production phase which will allow them to transfer the risk associated to the businessmen or traders.
The bill will defeat and abolish the monopoly trade system in the government authorised mandis also known as the APMC markets as the farmers will be free to sell their produce anywhere and to anyone in the market place.
It will allow the farmers to store inventory under the Essential Commodities Act, which before was constrained under the stocking limits imposed by the ESCA.
The farmer bill will bring up “freedom of choice” to the farmers as it will enable an open market to sell agriculture produces to both inter-state and Inter-state markets.
Why are the Farmers Protesting?[2]
As mentioned above the major group of farmers that are protesting are the farmers from the States of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These are the states where the farmers are most benefited with the MSPs after the Green Revolution. So the biggest fear or nightmare for these farmers is that the government that these bills might be brought up to scrap off the MSP with the context of providing a better platform to the marketplace of trading agriculture produces.
In total about 23 crops come under the provisions of MSP, although the government only buys rice and wheat from these farmers. The farmers fear that the 2 bills that are passed in both the houses will result in abolishment of the procurement process of the government as well as the MSPs. But why only farmers from these 3 states? Because they are the most benefited and secured under these two provisions.
Another fear of the farmers is that the corporate will now be involved in the trading process with the farmers. Farmers say that they do not trust corporates and in the long run the corporate will tend to manipulate and exploit the farmers in the name of business which will not at all good for the future of the Agriculture in India.
According to Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait ” The Central Government wants amendment in the Farm Laws 2020 but we want these laws to be repealed. We don’t want changes. We will end our protest only when these laws are withdrawn by the Central Government. Like the government brought the three bills, they should also bring a bill on the MSP.”
What all can be done?
One thing can easily be concluded from the whole scenario that there has been lack of communication between the central government and the farmers regarding the bill, i.e. the government was not able to fully explain the provisions of the act to the farmers. Also it is worth noting that the bill was passed in June, which was in between the duration of nationwide lockdown due to pandemic, which gives rise to a lot of questions. Firstly was there any hurry to pass this law? Couldn’t it be put up on hold for a couple of months so that things could get to normal and everyone had a chance to understand the provisions of the bill?
Now we can see that the protest like any other matter has been taken into the political side. Instead of going into the depth of the issue the opposition is using it as a propaganda to fulfill its deeds against the central government. The farmers are demanding scrapping of the three bills and even after 4 hefty meetings with the authorities has not resulted into anything. The Government is agreeing and is open to negotiations but are not ready to scrapping of the bills. This is where the fight is increasing day by day.
Now the question arises what are the possible solutions to cure the current situation?
What I feel is that the only solution left is the middle way, the negation way of reaching out to solution, which can only be achieved by meetings between the farmers and the government, whose soul aim would be to talk about a way beneficial for all. The Government should hear the grievances of the farmers and also explain them the provisions of the bill and their aim for the future. The government should hear and give assent to the needs of these farmers and do the required amendments to end the fears of the farmers. I also believe that scrapping of the bill is not a solution and also scrapping of a bill just because a handful of people are not happy with it will set a very bad example for the legal system of India.
References:
1. “The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020”. PRSIndia. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
2. “What is the Farm Bill and why are farmers protesting against it?” , Kirti Pandey, Times Now News <https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/what-is-the-farm-bill-and-why-are-farmers-protesting-against-it/689215>
About the author –
This article is authored by Animesh Raizada, Second year law student at JEMTEC School of Law, (Greater Noida).
