They have received support of national award-winning athletes, singers, actors, writers, and of influential politicians, but the protesting farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have failed to uproot the three new farm laws enacted by the central government last year on September 17.
Now jawans and kisans are face to face at Singhu and Tikri borders of Delhi, neither of them willing to budge an inch from the positions they have taken. There are 35 farmers’s unions now involved in the protest, including AIKSCC (All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee) and BKU (Bharatiya Kisan Union). Many farmers have died during the protest, some of them leaving behind suicide notes for the government.
The centre’s stand on the farm laws is that they will lead to growth of agriculture, which employs more than 50% of the Indian workforce but contributes only 17%-18% of the country’s GDP. The government argues that the new laws will do away with middlemen who have been exploiting farmers for decades and impeding the growth of the nation. These laws, as per the government, will bring prosperity to both farmers and the nation. The new laws will give farmers freedom to produce and trade without any government intervention.
The farmers argue that the new laws don’t guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops and that big corporates will have the upper hand in contracts with farmers. Farmers also fear ‘Legal Domination’ by powerful corporations.
The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020 is creating the most concern among farmers. It talks about trading and commerce of farm goods outside Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs). APMCs include government mandis, warehouses, and cold storages through which farmers trade their produce and receive MSP for it. The government will also not impose taxes on sale and purchase of farm produce outside mandis, which the government claims will be a fortune for farmers, but the farmers think it will be a fortune for corporates. Crops that get MSP go through APMCs but if a farmer trades outside of the APMC, he/she is deprived of such MSP as per the new law.
Another major risk farmers are envisioning is the ups and downs of the free market, which can push profits to the skies but can also pull them down to unfathomable depths. The market can sandwich the farmer between high production and low price, with no subsidy from the government to make up for the gap. This is a big concern before entering into free agricultural trading.
The second law, The Farmers (Produce and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020, is for price of goods and farm services. It clearly mentions “Agreement” between the seller (farmer) and the buyer. Now the farmer faces the threat of losing his land to corporates. The Agreement will mention the Price and Farm Services settlement between the two with both endorsing the agreement. Farm services will outline the condition of farm products and also the delivery to the buyer with equal consideration of price of goods as per quality. With the weather being unpredictable, the farmer is not sure about the quality of produce for which he has entered into agreement. What will it cost the farmer if he is not able to produce the agreed on quality of the product?
The third law is actually an amendment in the Essential Commodities Act 1995 (now Essential Commodities Act 2020).
Going by the previous decisions of the central government, like promulgating the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 and abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, we can infer that the central government has always stood by its decision and no protest so far has pushed it to review or repeal the laws. Just as the protest of Shaheen Bagh was disrupted with violence and under the veneer of Covid-19 protocol, now the protest of farmers may also be disrupted or even uprooted.

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Sheikh Aatif