New Delhi: In a major win for the farmers protesting at the borders across Delhi-NCR, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday, announced that the government would repeal all three farm laws. “We worked to provide farmers with seeds at reasonable rates and facilities like micro-irrigation, 22 crore soil health cards. Such factors have contributed to increased agricultural production. However, we failed to make them understand about the benefits of the new laws and as such, we have decided to roll them back,” Modi said.
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The announcement was made earlier today during his address to the nation. Along with the decision to roll back the three controversial farm laws, PM Modi will be inaugurating key irrigation schemes in Uttar Pradesh, before leaving for Jhansi to hand over locally produced military hardware to Indian armed forces on the final day of ‘Rashtra Raksha Samparpan Parv’.
“Today is the Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Today, PM will inaugurate key schemes relating to irrigation in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh,” his office said in a tweet. “Then, he will go to Jhansi for the ‘Rashtra Raksha Samparpan Parv.’ Before all of these programmes, he will address the nation at 9 AM,” it added.
"Maybe something was lacking in our tapasya, which is why we could not convince some farmers about the laws. But today is Prakash Parv, not the time to blame anyone. Today, I want to tell the country that we have decided to repeal the three farm laws," PM Modi said in an address to the nation.
"Whatever I did was for farmers. What I am doing is for the country."
Why were the farmers protesting against the farm laws?
Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have been camping outside Delhi since November 2020, demanding that the laws be withdrawn.
For the past one year, farmers from Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab have been camping along the Delhi borders, protesting against the government for enacting the three controversial farm bills. The farmers wanted the government to roll back the three contentious farm laws - Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. They also demanded a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for their crops.
Farmer unions in Punjab and Haryana said the recent laws enacted at the Centre will dismantle the minimum support price (MSP) system. Over time big corporate houses will dictate terms and farmers will end up getting less for their crops, they argue. Farmers fear that with the virtual disbanding of the mandi system, they will not get an assured price for their crops and the “arthiyas" —commission agents who also pitch in with loans for them — will be out of business. Their demands: The key demand is the withdrawal of the three laws which deregulate the sale of their crops. The farmer unions could also settle for a legal assurance that the MSP system will continue, ideally through an amendment to the laws.
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