BKU Chief writes to PM with suggestions on three agri ordinances Demands assured MSP which is legally binding with strong penal action on defaulting buyers Demands agriculture to be taken out of 9th Schedule of the Constitution.

Chandigarh: 1.9.2020

In a letter written to PM, Sh Narendra Modi, S. Bhupinder Singh Mann Ex MP, National President BKU, Chairman All India Kisan coordination Committee (KCC), has said that the ordinances in the current form will not be of any help to the farmers. Rather it has created a scare among famers that MSP is being done away with. He has given few suggestions to the PM in this regard.

In the letter, he has shared his personal experience in 1995 during his tenure as Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) as nominee of President of India from farmers’ movement).

He said that in our struggle to highlight the Zonal restriction levied by the Governments to suppress the costs of agriculture produces, he led an agitation to press government to allow free movement of wheat. He was driving my own tractor and trolley with valid tractor RC and Driving license. He was carrying trolley full of wheat collected from across the State from farmers.

He said that it will be shocking to learn that, being a Sitting Member of Rajya Sabha he was arrested along with hundreds of farmers at Dera Bassi Police station. He also raised privilege point before the Privileges Committee of the Parliament. It would be amusing to see the frivolous replies filed by the then Police officials (copy enclosed)

Further he recalled that in 1997 he led a march to Wagha Border, along with Sh. Sharad Joshi and thousands of farmers from Maharashtra, Haryana, U.P., M.P., and Punjab, as a symbolic gesture to impress for free trade route through Pakistan.

S. Mann said that renowned and most respected farmers leader Sh Sharad Joshi had always argued that the farmer has suffered over generations due to non-remunerative prices, anti-farmer socialist laws like the Land Ceiling Act (LCA) and the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), and opposition to access to technology and external investment in farming. Joshi had always opposed the draconian laws especially the ECA (falling under 126 of 9th Schedule) and the LCA and the restoration of property rights that were abrogated through the creation of 9th schedule. S. Mann offered to share a copy of the report of the task Force on Agriculture, if demanded.

The BKU Chief and former MP said “when I heard the preliminary news that your Government is doing away with these draconian laws, I was very thrilled and happy. I had thought that this would be a posthumous award to Sh Sharad Joshi for his excellent work done through the Task Force on agriculture which was formed in 2000. As Chairman of the Task Force, Joshi was given the rank of Union Cabinet Minister”.

S. Mann said to PM that “I had thought of presenting you with a badge of BKU for taking these bold steps.”

However, Mann said that on reading the finger prints, the excitement was quick to fizzle out.

Rather it has created a panic among farmers that Government is doing away with the MSP and farmers will be thrown before private purchasers. Though MSP has never been properly calculated by CACP and we have always contested it, the farmers still had something to fall back on through MSP and the Government purchase.

Mann said the benefits of amendments in Essential Commodities Act have been annulled by bringing in a proviso of triggering the draconian ECA again if prices of cereals increase by 50% and vegetables by 100%. He referred to the amendments

2. Amendment of section 3.

In section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, after sub-section (1), the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely:-

‘(1A) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub­section (1), —

(a) the supply of such food stuffs, including cereals, pulses, potato, onions, edible oilseeds and oils, as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify, may be regulated only under extraordinary circumstances which may include war, famine, extraordinary price rise and natural calamity of grave nature;

(b) any action on imposing stock limit shall be based on price rise and an order for regulating stock limit of any agricultural produce may be issued under this Act only if there is‑

(i) hundred per cent. increase in the retail price of horticultural produce; or

(ii) fifty per cent. increase in the retail price of non-perishable agricultural foodstuffs,

over the price prevailing immediately preceding twelve months, or average retail price of last five years, whichever is lower:

Thus, if Onion prices increase from Rs 2 to Rs 4 the ECA can be enforced. If wheat price increase 50% above Rs 1900, a Babu sitting in Delhi can be quick to pull the trigger. Thus there will be no benefit of this amendment; rather it will create more confusion and can be misused at will.

After carefully examining, S. Bhupinder Singh Mann gave following suggestions which can make these amendments meaningful and useful to farmers:-

A. To allay the fears that MSP will be done away with, another ordinance should be brought in to guarantee that farmers will get the MSP. This assured purchase on MSP should be legally binding on all buyers, government or private, with strong penal action on defaulting buyers.

B. 9th Schedule should be amended and agriculture/land should be brought out of its ambit to enable farmers to approach the courts for justice. The current form of the law creates a situation when farmers have still not got freedom. “azad desh ke gulam kissan”

C. The Proviso in the ECA Amendment Ordinance should be done away completely, especially in terms of price rise trigger.