Passage of agricultural bill is historic day for farmers, opposition should not spread confusion: Union Ministers

Union minister of agriculture and farmer welfare Narendra Singh Tomar claimed that bills are historic and will bring a change in the lives of the farmers. Opposition leaders are trying to mislead farmers.

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha on Sunday passed two contentious farm bills, which have triggered protests by farmers at several places, amid uproar by opposition members. Some lawmakers even staged a walkout in protest. Whereas, Union minister of agriculture and farmer welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said that bills related to agriculture will bring revolutionary changes in the lives of farmers and strengthen agriculture economy. Opposition leaders are trying to mislead farmers.

While speaking to ETV Bharat, he said that the two bills are historic and will bring a change in the lives of the farmers. The farmers will be able to freely trade their products anywhere in the country. The interests of farmers are protected under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hailing the farms bill, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary said that this bill gives freedom to farmers to sell their product outside the mandis. Over the ongoing protest, he claimed that the protests are politically motivated and we assure that this bill will be beneficial for the farmer.

Farmers’ and Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020 will become laws after the Upper House also passes them on Sunday.

The opposition also demanded that the Bills be sent to the Select committee of the Upper House but it was not accepted by the government.

BJP president J P Nadda and other senior party leaders on Sunday hailed Parliament's nod to two farm sector reform bills, which, they said, will give farmers freedom in selling their produce and rid them of middlemen, and slammed opposition parties over ruckus in the Rajya Sabha.

Nadda said the conduct of opposition members was an attack on democracy and accused them of dispensing with the decency expected of a parliamentarian in their attempt to stop the passage of the bills. He termed their behaviour "highly irresponsible".

Opposition members also violated COVID-19 protocols by storming the Well of the House, he told reporters.

Amid massive uproar by opposition members, the Rajya Sabha on Sunday passed the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020. They were passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Slogan-shouting opposition members, including those from the TMC, Congress and Left with several of them in the Well, created a ruckus after Deputy Chairman Harivansh did not consider their demand for a division of votes on a resolution to send the two bills to a select committee, noting that a division can happen only when members are in their seats.

TMC leader Derek O'Brien charged towards the podium, thrusting the rule book into the face of the deputy chairman.

Attacking the Congress, the BJP president said the opposition party had promised to abolish APMC in its 2019 general election manifesto while this will continue under the Modi government.

The Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi do not want to see farmers empowered, he said.

The Congress did nothing to undertake any reform to empower farmers and this is an old habit of the party to do politics by misleading the poor and farmers, Nadda alleged.

"Farmers are aware of the double-face of the Congress and will not be misled by it," he said.

Opposition parties have called these bills "anti-farmers" amid protests by farmers in states like Punjab and Haryana.