CHANDIGARH, June 24: Punjab Congress Committee President Sunil Jakhar today demanded immediate withdrawal of the three anti farmer ordinances promulgated by the government of India, saying, it will place the farmers’ fate at the mercy of the corporates, which are driven exclusively by profits only.
“BJP’s real intent is to eventually do away with the MSP regime, which they consider a burden on Indian economy and the actual purpose behind these ordinances is to prepare smooth ground towards that end so that government steps out and the corporates step in”, he told an all party meeting organized by the Punjab government here today, while warning, this is just the beginning of a process whose ultimate aim is to do away with the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system that is the backbone of agriculture economy.
Besides, he added, bringing these ordinances subverts the federal spirit of the constitution of the country as these affect the issues that are primarily the concern of the states.
Jakhar also had a dig at the Shiromani Akali Dal, which is sharing power with the BJP at the centre, asking the party to clarify its stand. “Your are trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds”, he told Akalis in an oblique reference to Ms Harsimrat Kaur Badal being the minister in the same government at the centre which is pursuing anti-farmer policies.
The PCC President said, the contents of the ordinance need to be viewed in the backdrop of union minister Nitin Gadkari’s recent remarks that the MSP was a burden on the nation’s economy.
He added, the process was started way back in 2014 when a committee headed by Shanta Kumar had made several anti-farmer suggestions, whose main gist was to disband the Food Corporation of India and do away with the MSP. It had suggested bringing down the public distribution system from 67 percent of the country’s population to just 40 percent.
“The way the ordinance was stealthily brought through the backdoor by the BJP led NDA government and that too when the country is faced with twin threats from China and the Chinese virus, smacks of some hidden agenda of the ruling party”, he alleged, while asking, “otherwise why should a government which has absolute majority in the parliament bypass it (the parliament) and bring in an ordinance instead”.
Jakhar cautioned that the ultimate intent of the ordinance will unfold gradually and it must be nipped in the bud before it is too late. He referred to the Shanta Kumar committee recommendation that the states should purchase only as much wheat as is required for the PDS there. This way, he added, Punjab will need to buy only eight lakh metric tons of wheat against 1.27 lakh metric tons produced by the farmers. “Who will buy the remaining 1.19 lakh metric tons?” he asked.
Blasting the theory of encouraging the farmers towards diversification, the PCC president referred to the distress sale of maize in Punjab. During his address, he showed a news clip in which the farmers were seen selling their maize for as low as Rs 600 per quintal against the MSP of 1850 per quintal. “This scenario may get repeated sooner than later for the wheat and paddy growers as well, if the BJP is allowed to continue with its anti-farmer agenda”, he warned.
Asserting that besides being anti-farmer, the ordinance also aims at subverting the “federal structure” of the country. Punjab has always been a staunch votary of cooperative federalism and any attempt to weaken and undermine it, as the ordinance aims at, will be strongly resisted by the Punjabis, he warned.
He said, once the ordinance gets implemented, it will lead to doing away with the existing system of the purchase of paddy and wheat in the ‘mandis’ (grain markets). This will also take away from Punjab the ‘mandi tax’ generated through sale and purchase of the agricultural produce in these mandis. The money collected thus is utilized for rural development, he said, while adding, this will be another robbery with the state after the GST.
While asserting and reiterating the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the ordinance, Jakhar said, any proposal that will affect the farmers and the agriculture economy should be adopted after due and threadbare discussions with all the political parties and the stakeholders, particularly the farmers.
The PCC President said, the ordinance has actually revealed the real anti-farmer face of the BJP. “They stole farmers’ votes in the name of implementing the Swaminathan Commission report and after coming to power they cheated the same farmers and simply backed out”, he remarked.
Jakhar also lambasted the unprecedented 12 percent hike in the prices of petroleum products when these were falling in the international market. He said this will put additional burden on the farmers and appealed to all the parties present to join hands and press upon the central government to reverse the hike. He said, while the MSP of paddy had been hiked by a meagre 2.8 percent, the prices of petrol and diesel had been raised by over 12 percent in the last 15 days.