A meeting of 30 protesting farmers’ groups from Punjab with the government regarding the contentious farm bills ended abruptly today over the absence of the Union minister for agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar. The Centre had called the meeting and the farmers’ groups had finally decided yesterday that they would attend.
The meeting was attended by the agriculture secretary, but the farmers demanded the presence of the minister.
Upset over his absence, the farmers started raising slogans inside the ministry and tore up copies of the contentious farm laws. They also said their agitation against the new laws will continue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defending the laws, has called the new measures “historic”. He has publicly said that while the laws give farmers options to sell their produce to private buyers, the government would continue to purchase staples such as rice and wheat at MSPs. The laws seek to end local monopolies of regulated markets known as agricultural produce marketing committees or APMCs by opening up to private competition.
These assurances have done little to satisfy millions of farmers in Punjab, Haryana and western parts of Uttar Pradesh. Big farmer groups, who usually produce substantial surpluses, fear deregulation will leave them vulnerable to powerful agribusinesses and in an even weaker negotiating position than before.
The reforms are a crucial test for the Narendra Modi government’s ability to push through structural reforms in the country’s antiquated agriculture sector, which supports nearly half of all Indians, while mollifying especially large farmers in the food bowl states, who are an influential voting bloc.
