Farmers Movement Archive

‘We never said MSP is going away, we are demanding new law on MSP,’ says Rakesh Tikait

Ghaziabad: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said Monday that he disagreed with the comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rajya Sabha over the issue of minimum support price (MSP). He also reiterated that all farmers stand together, and that the ongoing agitation will benefit small farmers.On Monday, PM Modi, besides other matters, spoke on issues related to farmers during his reply in the Upper House to the motion of thanks on the President’s address. The PM said, “MSP is, MSP was and MSP will be. Affordable ration for the poor will continue. Mandis will be modernised.” However, Tikait after the PM’s address said that the issue related was being made complicated. “We never said that MSP will be done away with. We said that a law on this is needed which will benefit farmers. Otherwise, they can be exploited at the hands of traders and corporate. The business in the country will not be done taking into consideration how hungry people are. The price of crops cannot be decided on the basis of tickets of flights whose rates fluctuate several times in a day,” Tikait said. The government has called the new farm laws “historic” for farmers and assured that MSP will stay. Yudhvir Singh, general secretary of the BKU, said most of the schemes and allocation were aimed for people engaged in the agri-business.“The farmers are never consulted, even during pre-budget consultations. Our demand is that purchase should be on MSP. We welcome schemes for farmers. We demand that the price is fixed by the government and this should be guaranteed to farmers. We can take this agitation up for years,” said Yudhvir Singh, general secretary of the BKU. For over two months, protesting farmers at borders of the national Capital have been demanding repeal of the three new farm laws and a new law on MSP.The protests at UP Gate have been going on since November 28, 2020.The last time government representatives and farm union leaders held talks over the issue was on January 22. During the last meeting, the government had offered that they were willing to put on hold the implementation of the three laws for a period of about one-and-a-half years. However, farmers have stood by their demand for the repeal of farm laws.The farmers had been reiterating that the government should speak to them. “Na manch badlenge, na panch badlenge (neither the stage will change nor the people of the committee). The government should talk to farmers and to our committee. They should remove the problem by taking back the laws and bring out a new law on MSP,” Tikait said on Monday. Jagtar Singh Bajwa, member of the UP Gate farmers’ committee and a farmer leader from Uttarakhand, said that there have been no talks with the government since January 22. “No talks have taken place with the government since then. We are ready for talks whenever they call us. But they have not given us any day or time for talks so far. It seems they think that the farmer is weak,” Bajwa added.“Earlier they had said that it was an agitation by farmers from Punjab.Then they termed it as an agitation of Sikhs, then Jats, and now they tell us the difference between small and big farmers. We want to say that it is an agitation for small farmers. They should increase the income of small farmers who have less than two hectares of land and their loans should also be waived,” Tikait added.The PM on January 30, during an all-party meeting ahead of the budget session on February 1, had said that the government stands by the offer to the farmers by agriculture minister Naresh Tomar, made during the last meeting between the government and farmer representatives.

Hindustan Times

08-02-2021

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