Agri Bills: Farmers Ready for Talks, Reduce Demand for Repeal of Laws

On Wednesday, farmers’ organizations stood firm in their demand that the minimum support price (MSP) be made mandatory, but appeared to have come down from the intransigent position that no less than the repeal of three new farm laws are acceptable to them.

Speaking to FE, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar insisted that farmers protesting at the Delhi borders are not demanding a legal guarantee for the MSP, while “some others” are asking for it.

On the other hand, peasant leaders said that they sent a response to the government regarding their proposals to resume the talks and requested some “concrete suggestions” from the government.

“We don’t want a gift, we want a fair price for our products. Nothing less than legal guarantee on MSP is possible to get out of the stalemate and farmers are ready for talks, ”said Yogendra Yadav, member of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee working group.

Yadav also said that these proposals sent by the government on December 9 were nothing more than a repetition of what was discussed on December 5, which farmers have already rejected.

In the letter to Vivek Agarwal, a Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Darshan Pal of Samyukta Kisan Morcha, said: “We want to assure you that agitating farmers are ready for talks. We are waiting for the government to take it forward with an open mind. Instead of repeating the rejected proposals, it is requested that you send specific proposals as a discussion agenda.

“At MSP, there is nothing in your proposal that corresponds to an answer. He spoke about the written guarantee on MSP as farmers’ organizations demand a legal guarantee to sell on MSP and set prices at C2 costs as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. “

In a sign that the government is also equally determined not to give in on its stated position that the laws will not be repealed, Tomar on Wednesday continued his meeting with different groups with one of them claiming to have obtained 6 lakh signatures from farmers who They support the laws. Tomar reiterated his offer for dialogue on the provisions of the three laws.

More than a lakh of farmers have been protesting outside Delhi’s borders since November 26 demanding the repeal of the three agricultural laws, recently enacted to free Indian agriculture from various restrictions.

Last week, the Center ruled out the possibility of suspending the new farm laws until a proposed committee of independent experts is formed to facilitate talks with protesting farmers. Expressing the inability of the Center to heed the Supreme Court (SC) suggestion to “ensure that no executive action will be brought under the new laws,” Attorney General KK Venugopal said that no farmers will come to register. However, he said he would seek instructions from the Center in this regard.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will disburse Rs 18 billion to Rs 9 million farmers bank accounts as the last installment of the PM-Kisan scheme for fiscal year 21 on December 25 via direct profit transfer ( DBT). It will also interact with 6 farmers from 6 states that have benefited from the Center’s various agricultural schemes. So far, the Center has disbursed Rs 96,000 crore to 10.59 crore farmers under PM-Kisan since its launch in 2019.