President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the three contentious Farm Bills that were controversially passed by the Rajya Sabha last week. The Union Law Ministry has also notified them in the Gazette. This development comes as most Opposition parties have demanded that the President not sign these laws, not only for their contents but also for the manner in which they were passed.
Incidentally, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) BJP's oldest ally, quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Saturday, over these controversial legislations. This, after Harsimrat Kaur Badal had on September 17 quit the Union Cabinet after she strongly opposed the Bills in Lok Sabha, claiming these legislations will destroy the agriculture sector in Punjab.
The three laws — Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020l and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020; were passed last week amidst opposition in the Rajya Sabha through a voice vote when the government apparently did not have enough numbers.
While the opposition and multiple farmer organisations have called these legislations anti-farmer, especially for marginal land owners in favour of big corporations, the government has termed them landmark reforms.
The laws
The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act allows farmers to sell their produce outside the notified Agricultural Produce & Livestock Market Committees (APMC) market yards (mandis). This, the government says, is aimed at facilitating remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels. However critics say that since the law does not mention MSP – or Minimum Support Price – this will lead to farmers being forced to sell their produce at much lower rates.
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 allows corporates, wholesalers, exporters etc to enter into contract with farmers for the sale of future farming produce at a pre-agreed price. Critics have pointed out that this law, too, does not mention MSP, and the way in which grievance redressal is structured is not helpful for small and marginal farmers.
The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act removes commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, onion, and potato from the list of essential commodities and will do away with the imposition of stock holding limits. This means that retailers can now hoard these commodities, which could lead to artificial price hikes.