Farm Laws repeal: Second big climbdown by Modi government since coming to power in 2014

The decision to withdraw the legislation comes almost a year after the farmers began their agitation against the three laws.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced that the NDA government will repeal the three farm laws passed by Parliament last year. PM Modi said that the government will take constitutional steps required to repeal the laws during the winter session of Parliament. The decision to withdraw the legislation comes almost a year after the farmers began their agitation against the three laws.

“There may have been some shortcoming in our efforts due to which we could not explain the truth, as clear as the light of the diya, to some of our farmer brothers….I have come to tell you that we have decided to repeal the three farm laws. In the upcoming Parliament session starting at the end of this month, we will complete the constitutional process to repeal the three farm laws,” said PM Modi today.

The withdrawal of the three agri laws will mark the second big climbdown by the Modi government since it assumed power in 2014. The first was the Land Acquisition Ordinance issued in December 2014. The government had introduced ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015’ in Parliament in May 2015. The Bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee for review. The Modi government had allowed the Bill to lapse after stiff opposition from the Congress and some members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had told the Hindu. Farmer organisations were also against the bill.

The bill had sought to exempt five types of projects from consent requirements and that included defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors set up by the government/government undertakings, up to one km on either side of the road/railway of the corridor, and infrastructure including PPP projects where the government owns the land. This was aimed at expediting the land acquisition process for strategic infra projects.

While farmer unions have welcomed the move to withdraw the farm laws, the opposition parties have said that the Modi government bowed its head due to constant pressure from the farmers and fearing losses in the assembly polls in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh scheduled to be held next year.