Farmers Movement Archive

Law on MSP is a legitimate demand, says Jairam Ramesh

Ahead of Parliament’s winter session that begins next week, Jairam Ramesh, chief whip of the Congress in Rajya Sabha, spoke to Saubhadra Chatterji about the farm laws and related issues. Edited excerpts: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation, said the larger section of the experts and farmers’ bodies supported the three farm laws. This is hogwash, trying to assume an aura of false modesty. This is characteristic of our dramajeevi PM. He is a master of communication who could not convince the farmers who are smarter than what he thought of them. They knew that the laws would open doors for corporatisation and MSP, public procurement was under threat. Modi was trying to make a virtue out of necessity. Why there were no consultations with CMs? Even their current favourite Amarinder Singh said on record that he was not consulted when he was the CM. Some agricultural experts and a member of the Supreme Court panel have said that agricultural reforms will now be only piecemeal.I am allergic to the word reforms. Yes, there are serious problems in agriculture such as in investment, production, water-related, and profitability-related issues. There are major challenges and both the states and the Centre have to tackle them. The Prime Minister has also announced that he wants to form a committee to look into the issues of the agricultural sector. I welcome that decision. Let them form a committee, let them consult states, experts, and farmer organisations. In 2019, the SC gave a verdict on data privacy. The government formed the Sri Krishna Committee. After its report came, the government brought a bill and sent it to a joint committee and now we have submitted our report. A lot of problems this government faced have come from a lack of consultations. Dramabaazi gets you nowhere. They do not allow any discussion in Parliament and the presiding officers are complicit in this. They have a majority in the two Houses and the standing committees. Why do not they send bills to standing committees? Also Read: Data Protection Bill: Five MPs file dissent notes in final reportThe three farm laws were first issued as an ordinance. What was the urgency? You did not consult states or farmer bodies but then go and issue an ordinance. They could have waited and discussed it in Parliament and referred it to a standing committee. They did the same thing with the land law and after sometime, they had to withdraw it altogether. The recent statements by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders indicate now the fight will be on other pending issues including a law on MSP.We can discuss the nature of the changes in agricultural laws in Parliament. The logical thing could be the government presents an amended bill and we discuss all the issues at length. It took me two years and three months to get the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill passed. We had two all-party meetings and I consulted the states. I even accepted amendments by Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh. Some people in my party were in favour of the ordinance route but I said, no. So, what will be your strategy when the repeal of legislation for the three farm bills is brought to Parliament? I cannot tell you what will be our strategy. But certainly, we would demand a discussion. Why did it take one year and the death of 700 farmers for the government to repeal the bills? Certainly, we want to raise questions even as we are not allowed to raise questions on China or Pakistan. Politically the issue is not over. Let us have a well-informed debate to revisit why those acts were made. Let us also discuss the way forward. I would certainly like this session to function normally. I do not want a repeat of the monsoon session. The washout was forced upon us by the government. We want to play a constructive Opposition party’s role. The law on MSP is now your latest demand. It has been there for quite some time. Up till now, the MSP was an executive decision. But now a law has assumed importance because there is an effort to bring in the private sector. There is also fear because this government tried to dismantle FCI and public procurement. It is a legitimate demand to have a law on MSP. But the PM has already given assurance in both Houses of Parliament that MSP will remain. Well, the PM had also said that the farm laws will remain. He called the farmers andolanjeevi. His party even termed them as secessionists, anti-national, and Khalistanis. PM tailors what he says to his audience. What are the priorities of the Congress in this winter session? We still believe a responsible, sober discussion on the border situation is needed. We must discuss Afghanistan and our neighbourhood. The economic situation is worse than what the government claims it to be. There is also an urgent requirement to discuss the environment as the PM made lofty promises in Glasgow but in reality, all environmental laws are being diluted.

Hindustan Times

23-11-2021

India