Team News Riveting
Call it an irony or petty politics, the farmers of Punjab and Haryana had staged a vehement protest in 2008 demanding the same benefits that the Narendra Modi government had included in the farm bills 2020.
Now, the farmers are on the streets, opposing the agriculture bills that envisage major reform in the farm sector. The farmers have been advocating for it for long.
“Allow corporate(s) to procure wheat: Farmers,” the Chandigarh edition of The Tribune covered the story on April 3, 2008. The Punjab and Haryana farmers led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) protested against the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s move to ban corporate from procuring wheat from the farmers.
Led by then MP Sharad Joshi, who was also the founder of Kisan Coordination Committee (KCC), and Bhupinder Mann of BKU, farmers expressed displeasure that while the price of wheat was approximately Rs 1,600 per quintal in international market, they were selling their produce at Rs 1,000 per quintal as per MSP.
“Why should the farmers suffer losses by selling their produce at lower rates to the government agencies. The market forces, and not politics, should be allowed to rule,” Joshi had then said.
Twelve years later, the same farmers from the same states led by the same farmer organisations are opposing the very law which allows them to do exactly what they demanded.
The new farm laws enable the farmers to free from the clutches of middlemen (Arhityas) and allow them to sell the produce to the buyer of their choice outside the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committees Act) markets at fair prices.
Interestingly, even in 2019, the BKU had supported the then Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, late Ram Vilas Paswan after he demanded Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to do away with Arhitya system and ensure direct payment to farmers as is provided under the new farm laws.
