New Delhi:
Farmers pushing the government to revamp the MSP, or minimum support price, policy met Congress MP Rahul Gandhi inside the Parliament complex Wednesday morning.
Mr Gandhi, who is also Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, met a delegation of 12 farmer leaders from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.
Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Deepender Singh Hooda were also part of the meeting, as were MPs Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
There was confusion before the meeting as the farmers were not allowed inside. “We invited them… but they are not allowing them inside Parliament. They are farmers, maybe this is why…” Mr Gandhi said.
“Rahul Gandhi will raise the voice of farmers inside Parliament…” Mr Warring told NDTV after the meeting. On reports the farmers are planning another march on Delhi, he said, “They have all rights to come to Delhi and protest (and) if a private member’s bill is required then we will bring that too.”
Earlier, sources said the farmers spoke to Mr Gandhi about issues in their respective states, and also asked him to introduce a private member’s bill to fulfill long-standing demands – to revise MSP and ensure legal backing. These demands have been at the core of their protests since it began in 2020.
Farmer unions across the country want the MSP – a purchase guarantee set by the government to protect agriculturists from steep fall in crop prices – to be based on the Swaminathan Commission’s C2+50 formula, which factors in cost of capital and land rent when calculating support prices.
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The government, however, is reluctant to drop the existing A2+FL+50 per cent method.
Apart from changing the formula, farmers also want legal backing for this purchase price; at present the government is not obliged to buy, for example, 10 per cent of a paddy crop at the floor price.
In 2020/21 lakhs of farmers gathered to march on Delhi, prompting the government to set up war-zone like defence measures around the national capital. The ‘farmer army’ – complete with tractors and supplies for a months-long siege – was held to makeshift camps blocking key roads into the city.
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The furore over the protests also made international headlines and sparked bitter fights between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition, led by Mr Gandhi’s Congress.
After months of blockades around Delhi and violent clashes between farmers and police in various states, the government was forced to stand down and roll back three contentious farm laws.
The MSP issue, however, has rumbled on, with farmers insistent the formula change.
A second round of protests – a ‘Delhi Chalo 2.0’ that also demanded loan waivers and freezing of electricity tariffs for farmers – erupted in February, months before a general election in which the BJP lost seats in key states and after talks with the farmers failed to resolve the situation.
