Farmers across India have protested the center’s new farm laws (archive)
New Delhi:
States governed by Congress are expected to hold special sessions of the Assembly to pass a bill deferring the implementation of the three controversial farm laws that were passed by the center last month and which have sparked mass protests across the country. .
A preliminary version of the bill, which has been drawn up by the party’s central leadership and sent to the states it governs, outlines two provisions. The first allows the state government to decide the date of implementation of the centre’s laws. The second ensures that contract farming between the farmer and any company, or aggregator, cannot take place below a minimum support price (PEM).
It is not clear at this time whether states where Congress holds power in an alliance with other parties, such as Maharashtra and Jharkhand, will hold similar special sessions, or whether states governed by governments other than Congress and the BJP, such as Kerala. and Bengal – will do the same.
It is important to note that these bills, once approved by each state, must be approved by President Ram Nath Kovind. The president can refuse to sign them, but will have to explain that refusal.
The proposed provisions directly address two of Congress’ main complaints about the new laws: it bans MSP for farmers and opens them (particularly the most vulnerable small and marginal farmers) to the predatory instincts of companies and private actors. on a large scale.
Rahul Gandhi criticized the “black laws” and said Congress would repeal them when in power.
Congress, along with other opposition parties, has launched fierce protests; this morning, Rahul Gandhi was in Moga in Punjab, where he warned farmers against the Narendra Modi government’s plan to destroy them and said that Congress would repeal the “black laws” at the first opportunity.
However, the center has insisted that the laws give farmers the ability to sell their produce at markets and at prices of their choice. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has verbally assured farmers that they can continue to use an MSP and that the government will buy food grains at that price.
Yet hundreds of thousands of farmers remain unconvinced and have called for clauses that guarantee the MSP and protect the weakest members of their community from the dangers of contract farming.
Last month, Acting Head of Congress Sonia Gandhi called on party-governed states to “explore the possibilities of passing laws … that will allow state legislatures … to deny core laws against agriculture.”
“This would allow states to circumvent unacceptable provisions against farmers in the three draconian farm laws … it would also relieve farmers of the grave injustice committed by the Modi government and the BJP,” Congress said in its statement.
The constitutional rule Ms Gandhi referred to in that statement allows state legislatures to enforce laws “repugnant to the law of parliament” if they win presidential approval.
In 2015, then-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recommended that states use the same route to circumvent a land acquisition law passed by Congress when he was in power between 2004 and 2014.
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