The ruling BJP on Monday mounted an all-out offensive against the opposition supporting the farmers’ protest demanding the repeal of farm reform laws. It described them, especially the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, as “shameful, deceitful, duplicitous” as they themselves had been advocating these same reforms during their years in government.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted extensively from policy documents, party manifestos and interviews given by prominent opposition leaders such as Sharad Pawar when he was Agriculture Minister, and Rahul Gandhi as Congress chief, in support of reforms such as deregulating agriculture trade, facilitating inter-state trade in farm produce and contract farming which the three farm laws pushed by the NDA aim to achieve.
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“For their ten years in power, the UPA was advocating the same set of farm reforms. They are now opposing for the sake of opposition. I quote from Page 17, point 11 of the Congress manifesto in the 2019 general elections — the English version promises to repeal the APMC Act and make inter-state agriculture trade free from all restrictions. The Hindi version of the manifesto says the Congress will amend the laws so perhaps they don’t know the difference between repealing and amending and should outsource their drafting work. But that is immaterial so far as the substantive import of what was meant. In 2013 at a meeting of Chief Ministers of all Congress-ruled States, Rahul Gandhi said fruits and vegetables should be delisted from the APMC list and the farmers should be encouraged to sell directly in the open market,” said the Law Minister.
Prasad quoted a letter by the then Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in 2010 to Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Delhi in which he said Agriculture sector needs private investment.
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“I am quoting directly from Pawar’s letter – ‘The Agriculture sector needs well-functioning markets to drive growth, employment and prosperity. This requires huge investment in market infrastructure including cold chains and for this private sector participation is essential for which an appropriate regulatory and policy environment needs to be in place.’ He suggested changes in the mandi act etc. What does one make of his enthusiastic support to the farmers who are demanding a repeal of the laws that suggest precisely the same thing,” said Prasad.
He quoted an interview Pawar gave in 2005 where he went so far as to suggest that there will be no support from the Centre to the States unless they amend their respective APMC acts.
Changing tack
Highlighting their change in stance while in government and now, when the three central farm laws have met with stiff opposition, especially from farmers in Punjab and Haryana, the Law Minister said this reflects nothing but “political opportunism and hypocrisy of the highest order”.
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Prasad called out not just Pawar and Rahul Gandhi but also Mulayam Singh Yadav who, according to him, advocated free market in agriculture as a member of the parliamentary standing committee. He named Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal whose government notified the central farm laws on November 23, soon after Parliament had passed them. Kejriwal has since taken to attacking the Centre for the passage of the laws and was supervising arrangements at the protest sites on Delhi borders on Monday morning.
“Opposition is misleading the farmer. They are hypocrites with shameful double standards. They are seeking to confuse the farmers on wrong facts,” said Prasad.
Farmers welfare
The Law Minister refused to comment on the process of negotiation with the farmers’ organisations but reiterated the Centre’s “commitment” to their welfare. He highlighted that between June and November, this year, the duration in which the farm laws were first brought in as ordinances and then passed in Parliament, the Centre conducted 13.70 lakh discussions with as many as 52.42 lakh stakeholders including farmers through webinars.
“There has been a range of discussions. The farmer seems to be stuck in some vested interests. Their welfare is our commitment. We have increased MSPs for six kharif crops this year. By November end, paddy procurement has touched 318 lakh tonnes for ₹60,000 crore. Punjab alone has contributed 202.77 lakh tonne, almost 64 per cent of the procurement. Would we be doing all this if were out to finish the mandis? We are giving an assurance that for contract farming, the farmers’ land will neither be leased, nor sold nor mortgaged. The small and medium farmers want to shift, they want a change. Why are they not being allowed? We have opened a National Agriculture Market NAM portal in which 1,000 mandis have started functioning in 21 states. There are 1.68 crore farmers and 1.51 lakh traders involved in this and they are doing trade worth ₹1.15 lakh crore. We have given digital mandis to the farmers,” said the Law Minister.