A key leader of the ongoing protests against three new farm laws has expressed dissatisfaction with the upheaval, breaking ranks with his colleagues on the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a platform that is leading the protests.
Sardar VM Singh, convener of the AIKSCC, told HT that the unrest “was not going well” and that the agricultural unions should not make the removal of the laws a pre-condition for talks with the government or close the door to negotiations.
If the government agrees to farmers’ demand for a law that no buyer should buy agricultural products below the minimum support prices set by the state, then the government should be free to push through reforms to modernize the agricultural sector. Singh said.
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However, Yogendra Yadav, a prominent member of the AIKSCC, said the organization did not agree with what Singh said nor was it authorized to speak on behalf of the platform.
Several AIKSCC leaders said they disassociated themselves from Singh’s post. “The AIKSCC national task force condemns and disassociates itself from VM Singh’s statement. The statement was not authorized by AIKSCC nor did it follow the decision-making protocols of the working group, ”Yadav said, along with 13 senior AIKSCC leaders.
Singh, on the other hand, said that the agricultural unions had “changed the goals.” “Our initial demand was to legislate a bill by a private member of Parliament to guarantee the MSP.”
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Singh’s organization, which dominates Uttar Pradesh’s cane and rice producers, appears interested in continuing negotiations with the government, a position that will help give Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government a window of opportunity to restart stalled negotiations. .
On Saturday, 15 agricultural producer organizations met with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to demand that the government continue reforms.
“If the government enacts a law to guarantee MSP, then farmers should not worry about whether Adani or Ambani are buying (products),” Singh said.
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The protesting agricultural unions have argued that the reforms will free up agricultural companies owned by magnates Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
Singh leads the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh. He was behind a landmark lawsuit in the Supreme Court in 2000, the verdict of which resulted in better prices for cane growers.
Some economists say that a law that makes the MSP binding makes little economic sense. “If private traders don’t find it profitable to buy from MSP when demand is low, they will just exit the market,” said Pravesh Sharma, a member of the Indian Research Council on International Economic Relations. Singh said the government was wrong to focus primarily on Punjab farmers for the talks. “I demand that the government speak with us and the farmers of UP and other states. It is up to the government to invite us, ”he said, expressing his willingness to engage with the government.
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