BATHINDA: Sanyukt Kisan
Morcha
has rejected the committee formed by the central government on
MSP
and other issues, and has decided not to nominate its representative in the committee.
Morcha had made public its doubts about any such committee ever since it was announced by Prime Minister along with the repeal of three laws on November 19, 2021.
It has stated that when in March 2022, government had asked Morcha for names for this committee, the Morcha had sought clarification from the government about the committee, to which it never got a reply.
On July 3, the national meeting of the
SKM
unanimously decided that “unless the government clarifies the jurisdiction and terms of reference of this committee, there is no point to nominate a representative to this committee as there is no rationale for sending representatives of SKM to such an anti-farmer and meaningless committee, said SKM members Dr Darshan Pal, Hannan Mollah, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Yudhveer Singh,
Yogendra Yadav
in a statement on Tuesday.
The Morcha in a letter had asked the government as what will be the Terms of Reference of this committee, apart from SKM, which other organizations, individuals and office bearers will be included in this committee, who will be the chairman, how much time will the committee get to submit its report, will the recommendation of the committee be binding on the government, but the government did not responded to these questions. Yet the Agriculture Minister kept making statements that the formation of the committee was stalled due to non-receipt of the names of the representatives from the SKM, it stated.
By announcing this committee before the Parliament session, the government has tried to complete the paperwork. But the notification makes clear the ill-intentions of the government behind this committee and the irrelevance of the committee as the chairman of the committee is former Agriculture Secretary
Sanjay Agarwal
, who drafted all three anti-farmer laws.
He is accompanied by
Ramesh Chand
, a member of NITI Aayog, who was the main advocate of these three laws. As experts, it is the economists who have been against giving legal status to MSP.
In the name of farmer leaders, the government has placed its 5 loyalists who openly advocated all three anti-farmer laws. All these people are either directly associated with BJP-RSS or support their policy. Krishna Veer Choudhary is associated with the Indian Farmers’ Society and is a leader of the BJP.
Syed Pasha Patel
is a former BJP MLC from Maharashtra.
Pramod Kumar Choudhary
is a member of the National Executive of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. Gunwant Patil, associated with the Shetkari organization, is a WTO advocate and General Secretary of the Swatantra Bharat Paksh Party. Guni Prakash has been a pioneer in opposing the farmers’ movement. They spoke in favor of farm laws, stated SKM leaders.
They also said there is no mention of making a law on MSP in the agenda of the committee. That is, this question will not be placed before the committee.
In the light of these facts, there is no rationale for SKM to send its representatives to this committee. The struggle for the legal guarantee of MSP to ensure fair price for the crop to the farmers will continue, it said.
