Defending the new farm bills, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accused the opposition for misinformation and propaganda campaign. He outrightly said that the farmers are being misled on these ‘historic agriculture reform laws’.
The three farm bills which the farmers are protesting about are the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020.
Attacking the opposition, PM Modi said that earlier any transactions outside a mandi were considered illegal. “This was against small farmers who could not reach mandis. Now even the smallest of farmers can legally operate outside mandis. So farmers have got new options and also got legal safeguards to stop them from getting fleeced,” he explained. “Farmers are being empowered by giving them options for a bigger market. Reforms are being done in the interest of the farmers, which will give them more options.”
The prime minister reiterated that new dimensions are being added to agriculture and its related activities in the country. “The agriculture reforms in the past few days have also now opened new doors of possibilities for our farmers,” he said. PM Modi added that efforts are now to ensure doubling of farmers’ income.
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Meanwhile, Ramesh Chand, NITI Aayog Member – Agriculture, attributed the farmers’ protest to misinformation. He said the farmers have not fully understood the new farm laws. Chand told PTI that if these new farm laws are allowed to be implemented, there are very high chances of big increase in income of the farmers and in many states, it may even double. The expert said protesting farmers are saying that the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) has been removed and full freedom has been given to stockists and black marketers etc. “If you look at what actually has been done is, there is modification done on the Essential Commodity Act. According to that modification, a criterion has been laid when ECA can be imposed, and that is if there is a 50 per cent increase in prices of cereals, oil seeds and pulses, then it can be imposed,” he explained.
In regards to the fear of corporation, Chand pointed out that corporate farming is not allowed in any states in India. “Contract farming is already happening in many states and not even a single incidence has come where land of farmers has been taken over by private companies,” he said.
