Haryana: Although Prime Minister Modi recently declared that the farm laws will be repealed, the farmers do not intend to stop protesting until their demands for Minimum Support Price (MSP) are met. The farmer leaders who led these protests believe that there were various aspects involved in the protests and some protesters were there only for political gains because of whom MSP could not be on priority when the agitation began. ETV Bharat talked to some of the farmer leaders who could give an insight into the key objective of the protest, and reasons why the MSP is such an important factor.
Talking about the significance of the demands on MSP, one of the farmer leaders said that MSP has always been an important aspect of the year-long protests. "Despite knowing that a guarantee on MSP was one of our crucial demands, the government has conveniently repealed the three laws and is now saying that they have given us all that we wanted," he said.
Why are the MSP demands necessary Pradeep Dhankar, leader of Haryana Nyunatam Samarthan Samiti, said that MSP is not a new issue, it has been on the table since a very long time. "Our farmers have been protesting for MSP even before the present protests started. In fact, the agriculture minister lost his seat in the last assembly elections because he could not resolve the MSP issue. Without a guarantee on MSP, repealing of the three laws will lose its element, it will be of no benefit to us," he said.
Also read: Farmers' Protest: A timeline of events that made headlines across the world
Dr Omprakash Dhankar, chief of Dhankar khap panchayat in Haryana, said that the farmers are quite well aware of the government's propaganda. "We were deceived during the Jatt Andolan. The protesters who were arrested are still in jail and are being punished for nothing. They should be released. If the laws against which they protested stand repealed, the cases against them should also be taken back," he demanded.
Many farmers are concerned that the government has made no concrete statement on the MSP guarantee, apart from saying that a committee will be formed to resolve the issue. Some of them also believe that the formation of committee is just an excuse to defer the real issue.
About 56% of India's population is dependent on agriculture for livelihood, and around 17% of India's total GDP is produced by this population involved in agriculture. The government has declared MSP on 23 crops, but none of them are ever entirely sold, putting the farmers at a loss.
"The government wants to give the control in the hands of the private sector. It's okay to introduce the private players for better market and supply chain. But it should be obligatory for both the government and the private companies to buy our products at rates above MSPs. Several high courts, including those of Haryana, UP and Rajasthan, have also said that laws on MSP is the need of the hour. The bill suggesting these laws has already been sent to the union agriculture minister, with support from 21 parties. There should be no reason that the bill is not accepted," said one of the farmer leaders. He also suggested that putting an MRP price on vegetable and fruit produce will help farmers in the long run.
Also read: Winter session of Parliament likely to be stormy as govt to repeal farm laws today
Jagbir Asola, chief of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lokshahi) in Haryana, said that it was a mistake to put the scrapping of the three farm laws on the top of our demand list. "The farmer leaders as well as the leaders from khap panchayats now realise that we should have put the guarantee on MSP laws as our top demand. There were people among protesters with political backing and they had initial control during the protests. It's because of them that we could not put MSP as a priority demand since the start," he said. He further added that if MSP had been the top demand, it could have brought the farmers a profit of 5 to 10 thousand per acre for one crop.
The winter sessions of the parliament have already begun, wherein the farm laws will be legally and officially repealed. However, the farmers are adamant about getting guarantee on MSP and framing of related laws. The historic farmers' protests, therefore, cannot be assumed to have entirely ended yet.
