The farmer’s protest against the three farm laws is still continuing on the 28th December.
Rajnath Singh, the Defence Minister of India, on the 27th of December, assured the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops their agricultural produce and mandis.
Mr. Singh said, “It’s unfortunate that those who don’t even know about farming, are misleading innocent farmers. This Government never intended to stop MSP, neither it will in future. Mandis will also be maintained. No ‘Mai Ka Lal’ (mother’s son) can take away land from farmers.”
Rajnath Singh’s remark came during a public meeting in Himachal Pradesh.
Mr. Singh took part in an event organised on completion of 3 years of the Jai Ram Thakur led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Government in Himachal Pradesh. Mr. Rajnath took part virtually in the event.
Mr. Singh congratulated Mr. Jai Ram for completing three years and said, “When UPA was in power at Centre, Himachal Pradesh received only Rs. 22,000 crores. When the Modi Government came to power, we gave 3 times more, considering the economy of Himachal Pradesh, not its size.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Rajnath Singh urged farmers to call off the protest and believe the Narendra Modi led Government.
Farmers of Haryana and Punjab are protesting in Delhi against the three farm bills.
The three farm bills are, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, the Farmers Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020 (Empowerment and Protection) and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020, were cleared by the President of India.
According to the passed bills, the Minimum Support Price (MSP,) area of trading would be under the purview of the Indian Government
The reason behind the farmers protest is their fear of being at the mercy of corporates or zamindars for crop prices. The new bills would also demolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP) advantages for farmers.
According to sources, farmer unions so far held 7 rounds of talks with the Central Government.
However, all the meetings and talks were fruitless as neither the farmers, nor the Central Government is stepping back with their demands.
The Central Government is not agreeing to scrap the passed three farm bills and the farmers are not supporting the negotiations offered by the Government.
The 40 unions of farmers’ association and the Central Government would conduct an 8th round of talks on the 29th of December.
Stay tuned for further updates.
