Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced the repeal of three farm laws that came into effect last year and opened the agriculture sector to greater private sector participation.
The three laws that allow the entry of corporate interests in Indian farming had alarmed a huge section of farmers, who fear that it will eventually lead to the end of the mandis – agricultural markets – and guaranteed prices.
Modi’s announcement of the repeal of the laws comes just a few months ahead of elections in the major agrarian provinces of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, amid massive farmer protests against the laws.
“We brought in farm laws with good intentions. Yet, we haven’t been able to convince farmers. A section of them has been opposing the laws, even as we kept trying to educate and inform them,” Modi said in his address.
The government will repeal the three laws in the winter session of Parliament, Modi said in an address to the nation early on Friday.
Addressing the nation. https://t.co/daWYidw609
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 19, 2021
Modi also appealed to the farmers, who have been agitating on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi and in neighboring states since the laws were introduced in September last year, to call off their protests and return home.
“I would request all my protesting farmer friends, today is the auspicious day of Guru Purab, return home, to your fields and family and make a new beginning, let us move forward afresh,” he said.
Farmers Welcome Repeal Of Laws
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of around 40 farm unions, welcomed Modi‘s announcement to repeal the three farm laws.
“Samyukt Kisan Morcha welcomes this decision and will wait for the announcement to take effect through due parliamentary procedures,” SKM said in a statement.
Meanwhile, farmers’ leader and national spokesperson of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, Rakesh Tikait, who has been spearheading the protests against the Modi government, said in a tweet that the protests would not be called off immediately.
The government should talk to farmers over the issue of minimum support price (MSP) of crops and other matters, he added.
The leader of India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi said the country’s “annadatas” – farmers – have made “arrogance bow its head” through ‘satyagraha‘, and described the Centre’s decision to repeal the farm laws as a “victory against injustice”.
The chief minister of Delhi, at whose borders the farmers had been protesting, Arvind Kejriwal, welcomed the government’s announcement to repeal the farm laws, saying the “sacrifice” of farmers who died protesting against them will remain immortal.
- Jim Pollard
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