The farmers have been protesting at various borders in the national capital for the last nine months. They are adamant on the demand for withdrawal of all three agriculture laws and a law for MSP.
New Delhi. The long-standing farmers’ protests against the new agricultural laws in the country are now expected to be resolved soon. A member of the Supreme Court-constituted committee on controversial agricultural laws said that the report submitted by the committee is 100% in favor of farmers and the Supreme Court should now hear the matter without delay. The committee member said that the government and the Supreme Court will have to consider the law and order situation arising with the release of the report, for which they will need time. But for this reason this report cannot be ignored and it should not be ignored either.
Committee member, Shetkari Sangathan President Anil J Ghanwat wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India on September 1, urging the report to be made public. He said that the committee does not support the repeal of all three laws as demanded by the protesting farmers’ organisations. But he and his organization certainly believe that there are many loopholes in the law that need to be addressed.
Ghanwat said that it is very important that the Supreme Court makes the report public at the earliest to clear all doubts of the farmers. When people come to know about the report, they will be able to decide whether the new agriculture law is in favor of farmers or not. He said that five months have passed since the submission of the report and till now the Supreme Court has not taken any cognizance of it, it is incomprehensible. He urged the Supreme Court to release the report at the earliest.
In his letter to the Chief Justice, Ghanvat has said that all the concerns of the farmers have been resolved in the report. The committee is confident that the recommendations made in the report will pave the way for ending the ongoing farmers’ agitation. Staying the implementation of the three agricultural laws, the Supreme Court had on January 12, 2021 constituted a committee, in which Ghanvat was nominated as a member to represent the farming community. Other members of the committee include Ashok Gulati, former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and Pramod Kumar Joshi, International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ghanvat said the new law has many flaws. Our Shetkari Sangathan also supports the new agricultural laws but we are concerned about some issues. The major concern is that the MSP will run out, but this is not true. Nothing has been said about MSP in the new agriculture law, but this issue is the most feared among farmers.
The farmers have been protesting at various borders of the national capital for the last nine months. They are adamant on the demand for withdrawal of all three agriculture laws and a law for MSP. On the question of writing a similar letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the concerned ministers, Ghanwat said that no, the committee has been constituted by the Supreme Court. We will speak only before the court. There is no relation with the government on this issue. Neither the government has appointed us nor are we answerable to them.
