Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday that the Center never intended to remove the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and did not ‘Mai Ka Lal‘could take land away from farmers even as protests against farm reform laws entered their fifth week.
Addressing the opposition, Rajnath, who has been at the forefront of the government’s outreach to farmers, said it was unfortunate that those who had no knowledge of agriculture were “deceptive innocent farmers.”
“It is unfortunate that those who do not even know agriculture are deceiving innocent farmers. This government never intended to stop the MSP, nor will it do so in the future. Mandis will also be kept. No ‘Mai Ka Lal (mother’s son)‘ it can take land away from farmers, ”Singh said as he addressed a state-level function to mark the third anniversary of the BJP government led by Jai Ram Thakur in Himachal Pradesh.
#WATCH ये दुष्प्रचार किया गया कि किसानों की जमीन कॉन्ट्रैक्ट फार्मिंग के माध्यम से छीन ली जाएगी, कोई भी मां का लाल किसानों से उनकी जमीन नहीं छीन सकता है। ये मुकम्मल व्यवस्था कृषि कानूनों में की गई है: हिमाचल प्रदेश सरकार के तीन साल पूरे होने पर आयोजित कार्यक्रम में रक्षा मंत्री pic.twitter.com/OrLOYNsnuI
– ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) December 27, 2020
The union minister said the new laws would increase farmers’ incomes, but Congress was misleading them. “Farmers’ income will double with the enactment of farm laws. It takes some time to see the impact of comprehensive reforms, ”he said.
“Whether the 1991 economic reforms introduced by then-finance minister Manmohan Singh or others enacted during the Vajpayee government, it took four or five years to see their positive results,” he added.
He reiterated that farmers must “experiment” with the new laws for “one or two years” before seeking any changes. “Similarly, if we cannot wait four or five years, we can wait at least two years to witness the positive results of the agricultural reforms carried out by the Narendra Modi government,” added the defense minister.
On Saturday, Singh had endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to farmers during an interaction on the new farm laws and called on farmers to “Experiment” with the new laws for “one or two years” before seeking any changes, while Interior Minister Amit Shah said the government had an “open mind” about any clause that farmers felt was not in their interest.
Meanwhile, following deliberations on the Center’s offer for talks, farmers’ unions, under the banner of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, said talks with the government would take place at 11 am Tuesday.
According to the unions, the meeting’s agenda will be: the modalities to be adopted to repeal the three central agrarian laws; the mechanisms that will be adopted to make remunerative PEM, recommended by the National Farmers Commission, a legally guaranteed right for all farmers and all agricultural products; amendments to be made and notified in the ‘Ordinance of the Commission for the Management of Air Quality in the National Capital Region and Contiguous Areas, 2020’ to exclude farmers from the criminal provisions of the ordinance; and changes to be made to the 2020 Electricity Bill (Amendment) to protect the interests of farmers.
.
