Farmers Movement Archive

Expert on farm-law panel asks SC to make report public, settle matter

A member of a Supreme Court-appointed panel of experts to examine the three contentious farm laws has urged the court to make its report public and decide the matter as thousands of farmers continue to oppose the legislation.The panel, which was set up by the Supreme Court in January this year, submitted its report in March.“More than five months have passed. It is painful to see farmers still protesting, being a representative of farmers myself. The court has so far not taken any interest in the report. It should be made public,” said Anil Jaysing Ghanwat, one of the experts on the panel.The committee scrutinised the three agricultural laws and held several rounds of meetings with a large number of farm organisations, regulated farm markets and food businesses. It is believed to contain several recommendations on policies regarding the agricultural economy that supports half of all Indians.Ghanwat said he has written a letter to the chief justice of the top court, urging him to take up the report as it has a bearing on “the agriculture economy, farm growth and farmers’ welfare”.The government passed a set of agricultural laws in September 2020 to ease restrictions in farm trade, allow traders to stockpile large quantities of food stocks for future sales and lay down a national framework for contract farming.Farmers claim the laws will hurt their livelihoods by eroding their bargaining power and leave them at the mercy of big corporations. This has set off a politically challenging farmers’ agitation in the country.On January 12, the top court put a moratorium on the new agricultural laws after fierce opposition from farm unions, who held 11 rounds of negotiations with the Union government that ended in a deadlock.The Supreme Court also set up a four-member panel, naming economists Ashok Kumar Gulati and PK Joshi as well as farm leaders Anil Ghanwat and Bhupinder Singh Mann to the committee. Mann dropped out, citing personal reasons. Ghanwat leads the Shetkari Sangathana, a farm organisation from Maharashtra.Farm unions rejected appeals to join the committee, saying at the time that they wanted nothing short of a repeal of the legislation.Ordering the committee to scrutinise the laws, the top court had said: “This committee will be for us. All of you people who are expected to solve the issue will go before this committee. It will not pass an order or punish you, it will only submit a report to us.”All four members proposed for the committee have either publicly endorsed the laws or want them amended. Like economist Ashok Gulati, a key figure in the committee who has been arguing for decades for a market-led, enterprise-driven agricultural economy, which supports half of all Indians. That has been a gripe among farm unions.

Hindustan Times

08-09-2021

India