Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Friday after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it is not possible to enact a law guaranteeing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) because if no one has one else buys the produce of the farmers, then the government will be forced to do so. The pressure will build up, he said.
After returning the agricultural law, farmers’ organizations have now started pressuring the government for the MSP law.
When Khattar was questioned about the demand of MSP law by farmers, he said, “No discussion has taken place on this till now. Agricultural economists also have different views. It doesn’t seem possible to make a law on this. Legislation on MSP is not possible because if this is done, then the onus will fall on the government that if no one buys their product, then the government will have to do so.
Khattar further said, “The government does not need so much, and it is not even possible to build a system on it. We can only procure as per requirement.”
Farmer’s movement completes one year
Large-scale protests took place in Delhi and elsewhere on Friday. Farmers’ organizations are demanding that the government enact a law guaranteeing MSP. On the first anniversary of their agitation against three controversial muscled agricultural laws, farmers thronged the borders of Delhi in thousands to demand an MSP guarantee. The farmers have sown the wheat, and they have now left their villages in groups to join the protest.
Jettisoning the national interest argument for votes in the upcoming elections, last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that all three controversial agriculture laws would be withdrawn. Farmers’ organizations welcomed the move but said they would not end their protest until the laws were formally repealed and other demands were met.
On Friday, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, while talking to the media, questioned why the government is not giving the guarantee of MSP?
He said that the farmers would benefit from the guarantee of MSP. Other farmers’ demands include the demand for the dismissal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra. Mishra’s son is accused of crushing peacefully protesting farmers with his car.
The winter session of Parliament is starting from Monday, 29 November. The government can introduce a bill related to the withdrawal of agricultural laws in the house on the first day of the session. Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress held a meeting on Thursday to surround the government in the house. Congress will surround the government by raising the demands of farmers’ organizations, including legal guarantee of minimum support price, dismissal of Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra, inflation and Pegasus in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.