File photo of the Minister of the Environment, Prakash Javadekar.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar alleged on Sunday that parties opposing the recently enacted farm laws were acting as “middlemen for middlemen.” Speaking to journalists on the second day of his visit to Goa as part of the ruling BJP’s initiative to raise awareness of farm laws, Javadekar said the real situation is that farmers earn less for their products and customers have to buy them. at higher prices.
- PTI
- Last update: October 4, 2020 12:36 PM IST
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Union Minister Prakash Javadekar alleged on Sunday that parties opposing the recently enacted farm laws were acting as “middlemen for middlemen.” Speaking to reporters on the second day of his visit to Goa as part of the ruling BJP’s initiative to raise awareness of farm laws, Javadekar said the real situation is that farmers earn less for their produce and customers have to buy them at higher prices.
Intermediaries raise prices and farm laws address this problem by eradicating these intermediaries, he said. “Sometimes I feel that the opposition parties have become intermediaries of intermediaries,” he alleged.
Stating that the agitation against farm laws will go away on its own, the minister said: “Falsehood has a limited life, while truth lives forever.” “Congress and the PNC launched their campaign to protest the agricultural bills. I am going to ask you to look at his manifesto. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken about such (agricultural) reforms in his speeches. But Congress already has. It has made a U-turn, “he said. He alleged that opposition parties were spreading the “myth” that the APMC (agricultural product market committees) will be closed under the new laws and the government will stop buying the product or stop the minimum support price (MSP).
“These are all lies,” Javadekar said. The BJP leader also said that the conduct of the opposition leaders in Rajya Sabha on passing these bills was “reprehensible and shameful”.
Referring to a protest by a group of people on their way to the city of Mapusa on Saturday, Javadekar said he doubts that those protesting were real farmers. He said that 60 percent of the country’s population is involved in the agricultural sector, but its contribution to GDP (gross domestic product) is 15 percent.
There is a need to increase productivity and also give them markets outside the country to improve their standard of living, he said. Javadekar said that when he was in school, the country’s population was 30 million rupees, which has now risen to 138 million rupees, but despite that, there is no shortage of food.
“We are grateful to the farmers who have been feeding our country,” he said, adding that it is the government’s responsibility to increase their income. The Agricultural Products Trade and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, the Farmers’ Agricultural Price Guarantee and Services Agreement (Empowerment and Protection) 2020, and the Essential Products (Amendment) Bill of 2020 became law after winning presidential approval recently.
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