The Centre on Wednesday cleared the bill to repeal the three agri laws that led to yearlong protests by farmers. The move came five days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the rollback and appealed to farmers who had set up camp at entry points into the national capital since November 28 last year to return home.
This was announced by I&B Minister Anurag Thakur after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thakur said the Cabinet completed the formality of approving the repeal of three laws, as announced by the Prime Minister on November 19. The new bill will now be introduced in Parliament for passage in the upcoming Winter session beginning November 29.
The prime minister maintained the laws were for their benefit and also apologised to people of the country, adding that the government could not convince a section of farmers despite its clear heart and clean conscience.
“There may have been some shortcoming in our efforts due to which we could not explain the truth, as clear as the light of the diya, to some of our farmer brothers,” Modi said, referring to the protests, spearheaded by farmers from Punjab and also Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. which left about 700 dead.
With farmers a major political force across lines of region and religion, the withdrawal of the contentious laws was welcomed by most parties. The ruling BJP hopes the decision will placate the two main communities fronting the protests the Sikhs, who are in a majority in Punjab, and the Jats, a major demographic constituency in western Uttar Pradesh.
Leaders are hoping it will cancel out political headwinds the party has encountered in the two poll-bound states – besides Haryana. Opposition parties, on their part, congratulated the farmers for their hard won victory but questioned the government’s ‘politically expedient’ timing. The farmers welcomed the announcement of the repeal of the laws, which had pitted farmers and the government against each other through 12 months of dogged protests and 11 rounds of talks, but made it clear it may not be enough.
The three farm bills at the centre of emotive protests and debate are the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
(With inputs from PTI)
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