“Today I have come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to withdraw all three agricultural laws. In the Parliament session starting later this month, we will complete the constitutional process to repeal these three agricultural laws,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his address to the nation on Friday, November 19.
The announcement comes exactly a week before November 26, the massive farmer led protest, on the borders of the National Capital, and in various forms across the country, completes 12 months. The farmers have so far refused to end the protest till all their demands, including repealing the three farm Laws are met.
The Prime Minister said, “The objective of the three farm laws was that the farmers of the country, especially small farmers, should be strengthened. They should get the right price for their produce and maximum options to sell the produce.”
However, the sheer will power of the farmers sitting on protest, under adverse weather conditions, and dealing with infrastructural challenges while being contained behind barricading (some of which was recently removed), has borne fruit. Repealing the Farm Laws was one of the demands. The other demands are the legalisation of Minimum Support Price and the repeal of the Electricity Amendment Bill and other laws as well as exploitative labour codes. So far, well over 650 farmers have been martyred during the peasant struggle all over India.
The Prime Minister chose the day of Gurupurab or Parkash Purab of Guru Nanak Dev, the biggest Sikh festival, to announce repealing the three Farm Laws, however on MSP etc. he announced “the formation of a committee to promote zero budgeting based agriculture, to change crop pattern as per the changing needs of the country and to make MSP more effective and transparent.”
आज मैं आपको, पूरे देश को, ये बताने आया हूं कि हमने तीनों कृषि कानूनों को वापस लेने का निर्णय लिया है।
इस महीने के अंत में शुरू होने जा रहे संसद सत्र में, हम इन तीनों कृषि कानूनों को Repeal करने की संवैधानिक प्रक्रिया को पूरा कर देंगे: PM @narendramodi
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 19, 2021
He said his government “not only increased the MSP, but also created a record number of government procurement centers. The procurement of the produce made by our government has broken the records of the last several decades.” The PM added that the Farm Laws were passed with “good intentions” and for “welfare of farmers, specially small farmers, in the interest of the agriculture sector, for a bright future of ‘gaanv-gareeb’,” however the government has not been able to convince farmers and “a section of them has been opposing the laws, even as we kept trying to educate and inform them.”
He admitted that the government failed to “explain to some farmers” as did “agricultural economists, scientists, progressive farmers also tried their best to make them understand the importance of agricultural laws”. He asked that farmers return home now that the farm laws had been repealed.
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