Farmers are back on the borders of Delhi with a renewed resolve to force the Union government to provide a legal guarantee to the minimum support price for the purchase of farmer’s produce. MSP has become the Central government’s bugbear. A fresh round of tussle between the government and farmers is on the cards. While withdrawing the three controversial farm laws following protests by thousands of farmers on Delhi’s borders, the government had assured them that the MSP would not be withdrawn and would find ways to strengthen it further. It has, however, been non-committal on giving it legal sanction.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar dashed whatever hopes the farmers may have had when he said in Parliament that the government had never committed to giving MSP a legal cover. He said all the government had promised was forming a committee to make MSP more effective and transparent, promote natural farming and change crop patterns, and keep the country’s changing needs in mind. A committee was accordingly constituted. The government invited representatives of farmers to join the committee. But they rejected the committee for two reasons.
One, a legal guarantee to MSP was not on its agenda. And two, the committee was packed with people behind drafting the three controversial farm laws. Representatives of Samyukt Kisan Morcha—the umbrella body of the farmers’ organisations—have said that unless making a law on MSP is part of the terms of reference, it would not join it. The views of the government and the farmers on MSP remain as divergent as they have always been.
The government should take the farmers into confidence to find a mutually accepted solution to the vexing issue. Farmers and representatives of state governments, especially from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, should be invited for consultation and included in the committee. It was farmers from these states who had spearheaded the last agitation. Rumblings have started again in these states. The national capital can ill afford yet another blockade and round of violence.