But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP spokesmen have “deliberately and maliciously distorted” the manifesto of Congress, he alleged.
On Friday, the BJP had alleged that Congress in its 2019 manifesto had promised to repeal the Agricultural Products Market Committee (APMC) Act.
Chidambaram said it is clear from the manifesto that Congress had promised to help farmers. However, this government has “surrendered” to companies and merchants, he said in a statement.
“All political parties have to take a position, either with the farmers or with the BJP that threatens the livelihood of the farmers,” Chidambaram said.
The Lok Sabha has passed three bills related to the agricultural sector and these are the Essential Products Bill (Amendment), the Trade and Trade in Agricultural Products Bill (Promotion and Facilitation) and the Farmers Agreement ( Empowerment and Protection) on Price Assurance and Agriculture. Draft Law on Services, which seeks to promote barrier-free interstate and intrastate trade in agricultural products.
These will now be presented at the Rajya Sabha.
Seeking to counter the ruling BJP’s accusation that it was Congress that had proposed eliminating the APMC Act, he said that successive governments in Congress built, brick by brick, a food safety system that culminated in the National Food Safety Law. of 2013.
The three pillars of the congressional food safety system are MSP, Public Procurement and PDS, Chidambaram said.
Congress had promised to promote farmers’ businesses and producer organizations so they can access inputs, technology and markets, he said.
The party had also ensured the establishment of farmers markets with adequate infrastructure and support in villages large and small to allow a farmer to bring produce and freely trade the same, the former finance minister said.
“Farmers need multiple accessible markets and options. Congressional proposals would have given them that. Once achieved, the congressional manifesto promise to repeal the APMC Act and make trade in agricultural products free would be a natural sequel. in the course of time, “he said.
“While our promise is clear, the Modi government has surrendered to corporations and merchants,” the congressional leader alleged.
Chidambaram said that two agricultural bills do not contain a clause that the price that the farmer will get from the private buyer will not be less than the MSP. “Why is a clause like that missing?” He asked.
The bills undermine the only regulated market available to the farmer today, without creating thousands of alternative markets that will be accessible to the farmer. The bills perversely assume that the farmer and the private buyer have the same bargaining power. They don’t, “Chidambaram said.
“The small farmer will be at the mercy of the private buyer,” he said.
Chidamabaram also said that should a dispute arise between the farmer and the private buyer, the machinery under the laws is so bureaucratic and complicated that no farmer will have the strength or resources to fight the buyer.
The small and medium farmer will go bankrupt, he said.
“The bills undermine all three pillars of our food safety system,” said the congressional leader.
“Little knowledge is dangerous and little reading is even more dangerous,” Chidambaram said, claiming that the BJP is caught in a web of its own making.
He claimed that he was exploiting an economy afflicted by a shortage of goods and services.
The suspended congressional leader, Sanjay Jha, had said on Friday that the opposition party and the BJP were on the same page on agricultural sector bills as Congress ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections that proposed the abolition of the APMC law so that agricultural products are free of restrictions.
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