News Analysis India

Tag: Farmers Protest

  • Protesting farmers to burn copies of new agri laws on Lohri festival

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Farmers protesting at Delhi borders said they will burn copies of Centre’s new agriculture laws at all demonstration sites on the festival of Lohri on Wednesday, as a mark of protest against the legislations.

    Lohri is mostly celebrated in north India, marking the beginning of the spring season. Bonfires are a special characteristic of the festival.

    Farmers’ leader Manjeet Singh Rai said they will celebrate Lohri by burning the copies of farm laws at all protest sites in the evening.

    Sankyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of around 40 protesting farmer unions, will hold a meeting later in the day to discuss the next course of action.

    This comes a day after the protesting farmer unions asserted they will not appear before the Supreme Court-appointed panel, alleging it was “pro-government”, and said they won’t settle for anything less than the repeal of the three contentious laws.

    The unions also raised doubts over the neutrality of the members of the committee even as they welcomed the top court’s order to stay the implementation of the laws.

    The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the controversial farm laws till further orders and set up the four-member committee to resolve the impasse between the Centre and the farmer unions protesting at Delhi’s borders over the legislations.

    Thousands of farmers, mostly from Haryana and Punjab, have been protesting at several border points of Delhi since November 28 last year, demanding a repeal of the three laws and a legal guarantee to the minimum support price (MSP) system for their crops.

    Enacted in September last year, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

    However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

  • Farm laws protest: Samyukt Kisan Morcha to stay away, see govt ploy

    Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH: Terming the four-member expert committee set up by the Supreme Court on Tuesday as progovernment and pro-agri reform laws, farmer leaders refused to appear before it and decided to continue their protests.

    The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of around 40 protesting farmer unions, following the SC order. Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab (Rajewal) said, “The committee members are pro-government and thus not dependable.

    ALSO READ | All members of Supreme Court panel backed new farm laws

    We never asked the court to form a committee; the government is behind all this.” Calling it a government ploy, Rajewal said, “our only demand is repealing the farm laws.” He, however, said the farmer unions will attend the ninth round of talks with the government on January 15 “as we do not want to give them any excuse”.

    He also assured that the proposed tractor march on January 26 will be peaceful. The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee said: “We had already said that we will not accept any committee formed by the SC for mediation.”

  • All members of Supreme Court panel backed new farm laws

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the three contentious agriculture laws and formed a four-member committee to find a solution to break the deadlock between the protesting farmers and the Centre. However, all the four members — agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, former director of International Food Policy Institute Pramod K Joshi, Bhupinder Singh Mann of the BKU (Mann) and Anil Ghanwat of the Shetkari Sanghatan — are pro-reform and do not advocate the repeal of the laws in their entirety. 

    Gulati, a renowned agricultural economist, is an Infosys chair professor for agriculture at the India Council for Research on International Economic Relations. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015 and is a former head of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. Recently, in an article, he had suggested to the government that giving in writing to the farmers that the MSP and APMC will continue and be strengthened would be a good option. He had also suggested to the Centre to assure the farmers on the contract farming clause that the contract would be on the produce, and not the land.

    ALSO READ | Outcome of Farm Laws committee is preordained: Agriculture experts

    Mann, chairman of the All India Kisan Coordination Committee, is a former Rajya Sabha MP. He was one of the founder members of the AIKCC and has been a farm leader since the 1960s. In December last year, he was a part of the group that handed over a memorandum to the government asking it to implement the laws but with amendments. He had sought a written assurance on the MSP and also urged the government to ensure a level-playing field for farmers.

    Ghanwat is the president of the Shetkari Sanghatana, an organisation founded by farmers’ leader Sharad Joshi that has sided with the government during the farmer protests. In August, the organisation had submitted letters to PM Narendra Modi supporting the laws. The Ghanwat-led body also did not support the Bharat Bandh. 

    ALSO READ | Opposition welcomes SC’s stay on farm legislation

    Joshi had served as a senior economist at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics and director of the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management and the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research. He has been a strong supporter of legalising MSP. In a recent article, Joshi had said that the protests are “baffling as apprehensions of farmers are mostly misplaced”.

  • Khattar, Chautala meet Amit Shah, say BJP-JJP govt in Haryana ‘strong’

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: With the Centre’s new farm laws threatening to rock the boat of the BJP-JJP alliance government in Haryana, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday took stock of the political situation in the state at a meeting with CM Manohar Lal Khattar and his deputy Dushyant Chautala. 

    While the BJP leaders sought to downplay the threat to the alliance, Shah, who had scripted the alliance after the fractured state poll mandate, turned the focus on the law and order situation and security at the meeting.

    “The government is strong and it will complete the full tenure. All aspects, including the stay by the Supreme Court and the formation of a committee of experts, were discussed with a focus on the preparations for the January 26 Republic Day celebrations,” Khattar told reporters after the meeting. Chautala, who has a strong vote base among the Jat agrarian community, also said there was no threat to the alliance government in the state. Haryana BJP chief O P Dhankar also attended the meeting. 

    In the House of 90 legislators, the BJP has 40 and the JJP 10 MLAs. A few of the JJP MLAs are learnt to have told the deputy CM that the alliance government may have to pay a heavy cost if the laws aren’t repealed. The Centre, incidentally, has stated on occasions that the laws will not be repealed. The Centre should rollback these laws as farmers of Haryana, Punjab and the country are up in arms against the legislations, JJP MLA Jogi Ram Sihag. “We will request Dushyant ji to convey our feelings to Amit Shah ji,” he said. “I have nothing to do with the JJP (meeting)… Not going to Delhi… The sentiment in Haryana is against the laws and it will cost the ruling alliance heavily,” JJP MLA Ram Kumar Gautam said.

  • Outcome of Farm Laws committee is preordained: Agriculture experts

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: While the Supreme Court has asked to set up a four-member committee to end the impasse, experts have said that the outcome of the panel is already preordained. Agriculture economist Davinder Sharma said the decision to form the panel means “going back to square one”.

    ALSO READ | Members of SC panel on agri laws pro-govt, won’t appear before it: Farmer unions

    “The Supreme Court has stayed the laws and set up the committee but the composition of the panel tells us that the outcome is pre-ordained. So we are back to square one,” said Sharma.  Ajay Vir Jakhar, agriculture expert and chairman of the Bharat Krishak Samaj, took to Twitter to express his disappointment. “The SC-appointed members have stated positions which pre-meditate the outcomes of the committee. Lost opportunity,” he wrote.

    Before the SC’s decision, Jakhar had tweeted: “Who will finally be the members of the SC appointed committee and will the mandate of the committee include the authority to recommend repealing of the laws? SC, please don’t lose credibility by choosing the wrong members & wrong mandate.”

    ALSO READ | Farmer leaders welcome SC verdict staying implementation of three agri laws, but say protest to continue

    Farmers’ rights activist Ramandeep Singh Mann said: “The Supreme Court has formed a committee on the farm laws, which has Ashok Gulati in it. He is a known supporter. There is Bhupinder Singh Mann, this is all wrong. We don’t accept them. We will not accept them. We will return only when the laws are repealed.” 

  • Supreme Court order on farm laws moral defeat for BJP-led Centre: Shiromani Akali Dal

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday said the Supreme Court order staying the implementation of three new farm laws till further orders was a “resounding moral defeat” for the BJP-led government at the Centre.

    The SAD held its core committee meeting, led by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, here on Tuesday in the wake of the apex court order.

    Harcharan Bains, the principal advisor to the party president, said the committee passed a resolution, saying “the apex court order fully vindicates the stand and steps taken by the SAD prior to the passage of the anti-farmer bills”.

    “We had advocated then also that the passage of the bills be put off, a Select House Committee be formed and the consent of farmers be taken before introducing the bills in the House,” he said, while pointing out that the SAD had walked out of the BJP-led NDA and party leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal had resigned as a Union minister over the farm laws.

    The SAD also described the composition of the committee formed by the Supreme Court to look into the farmers’ grievances against the laws as “most unfortunate and unacceptable”, according to a party statement.

    It said the composition and character of the committee “fully exposed the anti-farmer nexus” between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and the Centre.

    The profile and background of the members of the committee clearly show that this was done at Singh’s instance, the party alleged.

    “How else would you find in the committee names such as that of a known supporter of the anti-farmer laws, B S Mann, a former Congress MP whose son was nominated to the PPSC by the chief minister,” Bains said.

    The Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the controversial farm laws till further orders on Tuesday and decided to set up a four-member committee to resolve the impasse between the Centre and the farmers’ unions protesting at Delhi’s borders over the legislations.

    The four members of the committee set up by the apex court are BKU president Bhupinder Singh Mann, Shetkeri Sangathana, Maharashtra president Anil Ghanwat, Pramod Kumar Joshi, director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute, and agriculture economist Ashok Gulati.

  • Supreme Court issues notice on plea against proposed tractor rally on Republic Day

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to hear the Centre’s application seeking an injunction against the proposed tractor or trolley march or any other kind of protest which seeks to disrupt the gathering and celebrations of the Republic Day on January 26.

    The Centre, in an application filed through Delhi Police, has said that any proposed march or protest which seeks to disrupt and disturb the Republic Day celebrations will cause an ’embarrassment to the nation.’

    It said the right to protest can never include “maligning the nation globally” and requested the top court to restrain anyone from conducting any protest march either in the form of tractor march, trolley march, vehicle march or any other mode by entering into the National Capital Region Territory of Delhi.

    A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notice on the application and said that it be served upon the farmers’ unions, which are protesting against the new farm laws.

    “Taken on board. Issue notice returnable on January 18,” said the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

    The application said it has come to the knowledge of security agencies that a small group of protesting individuals or organisations have planned to carry out a tractor march on Republic Day.

    “It is submitted that the proposed march is slated to disturb and disrupt the august celebrations of nation on Republic Day and would be bound to create a massive law and order situation,” the application said.

    It further said “it is submitted that the said proposed march/protest seeks to disrupt and disturb such celebrations which is bound to create a serious law and order situation and will cause an embarrassment to the nation.”

    The application came up for consideration when the top court was hearing on a batch of pleas including those challenging the validity of these farm laws, those supporting these legislations and those raising the issue of farmers protesting at Delhi borders.

    The apex court stayed the implementation of the contentious new farm laws till further orders and constituted a four-member committee to make recommendations to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and farmers’ unions protesting at Delhi borders.

  • Sharad Pawar meets Left leaders to corner Centre during Budget session

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Opposition leaders on Monday discussed the farmers’ agitation and are expected to meet to devise a joint strategy to corner the government on the issue during the upcoming Budget session of Parliament.

    NCP president Sharad Pawar met CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja at his residence in the national capital. The meeting comes a day before the SC is to give an order on a case related to the three farm laws and indicated that it may stay the implementation of the contentious Acts, refusing to grant more time to the Centre to explore the possibility of an amicable solution.

    The leaders discussed the order and that they stand by farmers’ demand for the repeal of the laws. Ahead of its countrywide agitation on January 15 in support of agitating farmers, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also reached out to the Opposition leaders and is likely to reach out to other like-minded parties to plan out a joint strategy to press the demand for the rollback of the legislations. The leaders are expected to meet ahead of the Budget session, starting January-end.

    On Saturday, the Congress had announced that it has decided to organise ‘Kisan Adhikar Divas’ across the country on January 15 and hold protests outside the Raj Bhavans.

    “Now, the Supreme Court has said that the Centre failed to protect the interests of the farmers, let us hope good sense prevails with the government. The government should repeal the laws and the PM should speak to the farmers and offer his apologies,” said Congress general secretary, organisation, KC Venugopal. 

  • Farm Laws: CJI suggests elderly & women protesters to go home

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: All eyes will be on the Supreme Court on Tuesday when it is likely to pronounce orders on various issues related to the new agriculture laws and the farmers’ ongoing protest at Delhi borders and may take a call on setting up of a committee headed by a former Chief Justice of India (CJI) to find ways to resolve the impasse. 

    ALSO READ | We don’t want anybody’s blood on our hands, says Supreme Court

    A bench, headed by CJI S A Bobde, which indicated during the hearing that it may pass orders in parts on the issues concerning laws and farmers’ protest, later uploaded the information on the website. The CJI said he had spoken with former CJI P Sathasivam for heading the panel but “since he does not know Hindi, he declined to be part of the panel”.

    Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was appearing for protesting farmers, suggested former CJI R M Lodha’s name. The court said it will consider the recommendation.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Centre told the court that the government has done its best to defuse the situation but the farmers have been non-cooperative during the talks. He even asked the court to pass an order to restrain the protests from disrupting the Republic Day celebrations, referring to a proposed ‘tractor rally’ by farmers on that day. To that, Dave asserted that there will be no tractor rally on Republic Day.

    ALSO READ | Stay on farm law implementation?

    However, when the court said it will record his statement, Dave replied saying he would seek instructions. The CJI asked the lawyers — Dave, Colin Gonsalves, Prashant Bhushan and H S Phoolka representing the protesting farmers — to convince aged people and women participating in the agitation to go back.

    “I want to take a risk. I want you to tell them that the CJI wants them to go back. Try to persuade them. At some time, we might say in the order that old people and women need not be there in the protests,” the CJI said.On the issue of law and order situation, Bobde said it was for the police to deal with the situation and not the court. “Courts cannot restrain peaceful protest,” he said. Citing the Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha, the bench said: “We want to ensure no violence or blood bath in the streets. If somebody breaks the law, you take action. The court would not break any violence.”

    Abhay Chautala threatens to quitINLD legislator Abhay Singh Chautala wrote to the Haryana Assembly Speaker on Monday, saying if the Centre doesn’t withdraw the farm laws by January 26, then his letter may be considered as his resignation as an MLA. He slammed the Centre for imposing the “black laws”.

    Shoe polish service for freeIn the spirit of community service, a group of volunteers from the Sisganj Gurudwara in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk are offering to polish shoes of farmers protesting at the Singhu border for free.The sewadars sit on the ground and urge people to offer their ‘jodas’ at a makeshift counter

  • Stay on farm law implementation?

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday indicated that it could stay the implementation of the three contentious farm laws as it came down heavily on the government for insisting on continuing with the laws despite the nearly two-month-long farmers’ protest in and around Delhi’s borders.

    A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde told Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the government had failed to hold effective negotiations with the protesting farmers, and stressed the need for a court-appointed committee to break the logjam. The bench will pass its order on Tuesday.

    The court blamed the government for framing the laws without enough consultation. “We do not want to repeat the criticism but we do not believe your negotiations are effective. We are attempting to make the atmosphere conducive by keeping the implementation of the laws in abeyance,” the CJI observed while referring to the suicides by farmers to say that it did not want any blood on its hands, and also voiced concern about the possibility of the protests turning violent. “Who is going to take responsibility for

    Farmers during their ongoing agitationover the farm reform laws, at the Singhuborder in Delhi on Monday | PTIbloodshed if this sabre-rattling goes on and results in conflagration?” the bench questioned.

    When Venugopal claimed that the laws were based on the recommendations of various expert committees set up by past governments, including those of the UPA, the CJI cut him short. “It will not help to say that some other government started it. We are not on the merits of the laws,” CJI  Bobde said.To Venugopal’s complaint that the farmers were being stubborn on their demand to repeal the laws, the CJI said they will be heard by the proposed court-appointed committee.

    Referring to the bench’s suggestion to stay the legislations, Venugopal requested it not to take such a drastic decision and to wait for some more time before passing orders. But the CJI was in no mood to relent. “Sorry to say, we have to, because you, as the Union of India, did not take responsibility. You were not able to solve the problem. You should have been able to solve the strike, but you did not,” CJI Bobde said.

    Mehta sought to defend the government when the CJI asked him if the Centre was part of the problem or the solution. The Solicitor General said many organisations had come forward to support the laws as progressive.The bench also made it clear that the protesting farmers would have to move to another site to continue their agitation. 

    Sense of responsibility“We don’t see why there is an insistence on implementation of the laws. It’s our intention to see if we can bring about an amicable resolution. That is why we asked why don’t you put the bills on hold. You want time for negotiation. If there is some sense of responsibility then you will not implement the laws,” the bench said

    Not even one plea in SC saying laws are good, finds benchObserving that there is not a single petition before the Supreme Court saying the farm laws were beneficial, the bench told the Centre, “It will not help you to say that this was started by the last government. We are discussing constitutionality.”