Farmers Movement Archive

Demand of legal backing to MSP may prevent headway in farm talks today

NEW DELHI: The meeting of farmer organisations with top agriculture ministry officials on Wednesday is likely to be a mere formality as the groups protesting the newly enacted farm laws are not willing to accept anything less than their key demand of getting legal backing to procurement of farm produce at minimum support price (MSP). Though the government side, led by agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal, is ready with details showing the hike in procurement of paddy, wheat, oilseeds and pulses at MSP consistently over the past few years and the rise in procurement centres, there is very little possibility of conceding the farmers’ key demand, which, officials, believe would defeat the very purpose of the agri market reforms. “The idea is to benefit small and marginal farmers, who account for 86% of the total farmers in the country, through market reforms which may end up providing them more than the MSP in due course,” said an official, underlining the gist of the ministry’s thinking. This view was, in fact, conveyed to groups of farmers who met both agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar and defence minister Rajnath Singh over the past few days. “The meeting on Wednesday will just be a formality. Such meetings should have been called before enacting the farm laws so that farmers could have suggested a few key points, flagging the ground realities. Meeting at this stage has just been called to send a message about the process of consultations which actually have no meaning post-enactment of laws,” said Yudhvir Singh, national general secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU). Different factions of the BKU, representatives of Jai Kisan Andolan and members of the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) from Punjab are expected to join the meeting on Wednesday. They will present their charter of demands to the ministry, arguing how anything less than the legal guarantee to the MSP would not be acceptable to over 200 farm bodies across India under the AIKSCC. “Such meetings with bureaucrats in the ministry have, however, no meaning as they don’t have any power to alter what has already been done through the legislations. Farmers want repeal of the newly enacted laws and expect legal guarantee to the MSP,” said Avik Saha, coordinator of the AIKSCC whose few outfits from Punjab and Haryana are expected to attend the meeting. Officials in the ministry, remained non-committal, noting that the MSP had never been part of the law and even argued how any legal provision associated with it would ultimately harm those farmers whose produce do not meet the prescribed quality standards.

The Times of India

2020-10-14

India