After protests, BJP cautious on farm ordinances, Cong against

Farmers in Haryana and Punjab are up in arms against the ordinances on agriculture promulgated by the Narendra Modi government and likely to be introduced in Parliament’s Monsoon Session commencing on Monday.

The Congress has announced that it will oppose the “anti-farmer” ordinances in the Parliament, while the BJP is seeking discussions with farmers in Haryana.

Congress chief spokesperson RandeepSurjewala, who hails from Haryana, said: “These black laws are a conspiracy to ring a death knell for agriculture and millions of farmers, agricultural labourers and commission agents. This is a well-calculated evil design to mortgage the agriculture and farming to crony capitalists.”

Farmers and commission agents’ associations extended support to the protests against three Ordinances — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance.

Protesters said that the Ordinances were not only against the interest of the farmers but were also against the Constitution.

The Congress said that abolishing the system of grain and vegetable markets run by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee will totally destroy the agriculture produce procurement system.

In such a scenario, the farmers will neither get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) nor the price of their crop as per market price, it said.

The party has termed the three ordinances a “direct attack on the federal structure of the country”, saying agriculture and agricultural produce markets come under the purview of the states, as per the Constitution, “but, the Modi government didn’t consider it worthwhile to take the state governments in confidence on this issue”.

“Protection and incentivising agriculture has been naturally the subject under the domain of the states, but, they were not consulted at all. On the contrary, market fees and rural development fund levied for the development of villages and agriculture was done away unilaterally, which is flagrant transgression of constitutional provisions,” the party said.

Haryana’s ruling BJP has formed a three-member committee, comprising Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP Dharambir Singh and Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh, to hold talks with agitating farmers.