Farmers Movement Archive

‘Agri laws won’t help farmers & aam aadmi’

Jaipur: Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s nephew professor Jagmohan Singh, who held a press conference in Jaipur on Monday, said the three farm laws passed by the Centre were neither in the interest of the farmers, nor that of the general public. He said the laws were passed with the intention to benefit “international corporates and private companies”. “Farmers are understanding this very well,” he said. A Kisan Mahapanchayat will be organised at Jaipur’s Vidyadhar Nagar Stadium on March 23, observed as Martyrs’ Day to mark the death anniversary of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, in support of the farmers’ protest against the Centre’s three farm laws. The Kisan mahapanchayat will be attended by Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait. Singh also said the Central government is unwilling to pass a law to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for agricultural produce because it “will disturb the existing system” and “reduce profiteering” which will be enjoyed by the private companies. “Legal guarantee for MSP will ensure that they (farmers) at least get their cost of production in return, but they only want to destroy agriculture,” he said. “The laws were passed in a hurry to benefit the corporates. The union agriculture minister (Narendra Singh Tomar) had admitted in the Parliament that the government had taken agriculture loans from the World Bank amounting to Rs 3,000 crore in the past three years (from 2018-19 to February 2021). But, the minister did not disclose the purpose for taking the loans,” said Singh.“This is very strange because the government cannot make agriculture policies without consulting the farmers and people living in rural areas which is a violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. But nobody knows for which scheme the money was utilised,” he added. He also said that a parliamentary committee had asked the government to implement the “Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act in letter and spirit” because this would help government “mint money”. “The intention is to benefit only 5 per cent people, instead of 80 per cent people of the country. After Essential Commodities Act was amended, there was an export amounting to Rs 27,500 crore of essential food items. Parboiled rice is now being exported at a very fast pace,” he added.

The Times of India

2021-03-23

Jaipur