The 2014 Lok Sabha election results opened a new chapter for ‘reform’ in India.
It was a historic moment for not only the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but also India as Narendra Damodardas Modi, who had once said, “I am a small man who wants to do big things for small people”, became the 14th Prime Minister of the country.
With a mindset to serve the poor and downtrodden, when Modi entered Parliament for the first time in May 2014, he bowed with his forehead touching the building’s stairs as a mark of respect. Such a gesture was never seen before. It instantly became viral and praises started pouring in from across the world.
“The significance of this election is…it brings a lot of hope for the common people,” Modi had said.
Six years since his entry into Parliament on May 20, 2014, not a day has passed when his government did not live up to the expectations of the common people, their dreams and their desires.
From the “minimum government and maximum governance” mantra to bringing many new laws to ensure due respect and dignity of the people, Modi has had sleepless nights to ensure a sound sleep to the ‘aam aadmi’ (common man) in the country.
In education, small scale industry, foreign relations, employment generation, poverty eradication, banking and industries, Modi never forgot to come up with welfare schemes to help people across all sectors.
So is the case with the agriculture reform bills passed in Parliament in September.
With the President’s nod, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 were made into acts.
These are the same bills that many political parties had recommended and promised to implement in their election manifestoes. Unfortunately, for years, it was kept under wraps and never implemented.
The report drafted by the Swaminathan Commission (set up by the Manmohan Singh government in 2004) was ignored. The Commission identified many areas which were causing distress to the farmers including poor land reform, inadequate water for farming, lack of advanced technology, lack of institutional credit, lack of opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing and irregular Minimum Support Price for the produce.
True to his pledge to protect the dignity of the poor people, PM Modi brought the same farm bills which was supported by all the political parties in their political campaigns. But soon, it turned out to be a problem for Opposition parties. PM Modi said, “They fear that Modi will take all the credit. I don’t want credit…you take all the credit but please don’t create a conspiracy for your political interest. Don’t play with the sentiments of our farmers”.
Due to constant fear that the government, through the farm laws, would do away with Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, several farmers across the country are protesting and demanding that the government should roll back its decision.
However, PM Modi on Friday while addressing a ‘Kisan Mahasammelan’ organised at Dussehra ground in Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh through video conferencing clarified that if the government had to remove the MSP, it would not have implemented the Swaminathan Commission report. “Second, we have announced the MSP much before the sowing season. This shows that our intention is not against the farmers and how serious we are about the MSP,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that there are parties who are playing dirty politics while keeping the gun on farmer’s shoulders. We have implemented the same thing which they kept on promising for ages but never implemented. They did vote bank politics for decades and now when we want to give their due respect, they are creating problems.”
“You know why they are creating problems. They are creating problems because they fear that I will take away all the credit for this historic move. This move will not only give dignity to the farmers but also help their growth. Today, with folded hands, I would like to request all political parties, please don’t play with the sentiments of the farmers. Please don’t mislead them. You keep all the credit. I am giving credit to all your old election manifestoes. For me, to ease their life, progress is more important. I want modernity in the agricultural sector,” the Prime Minister said.
While accusing the opposition of betraying and misleading farmers and supporting the protests for dirty vote bank politics, he said, “The reform in the agriculture sector is a watershed moment for India. This Bill has not come overnight. For the last 20-30 years, the central government and state governments had several discussions on these reforms with agricultural experts, economists and progressive farmers. They all agreed on reforms. But now all of a sudden, the Opposition parties are spreading a web of lies.”
“There is no reason for mistrust in the agricultural reforms we have done. I say with confidence that there is no place for lies. It has been more than six months since the farm bills were tabled. Even after the enactment of the law, the MSP was announced as it used to be announced earlier. Even during the pandemic situation, this continued. Crops were purchased in the same mandis where they have always been purchased. Today, I would like to assure all the farmers that there is nothing to worry and request them not to believe in misleading information. The MSP will continue just as before. It will not be closed and nor will it end,” he said.
“As alleged, not a single market has been closed after the enactment of the new law. It is unfortunate that despite that lies are being spread against us. In fact, we are spending more than 500 crore rupees on modernising agricultural produce market committee (APMC). Where did the news of its closure come from? We have given a Kisan Credit Card to all the farmers. Earlier, they were only given to select farmers for politics. Since we came to power, we changed rules and made it available to all the farmers across the country,” PM Modi said.
On a debt waiver promise made earlier by the previous government, he said, “Before every election, the Opposition leaders used to talk about debt waiver. Can anyone tell me how much the debt was waived? Are all farmers covered under this?”
On cold storage and warehousing facilities, he said, “Despite hard work, farmers find it difficult to store their produce due to lack of modern storage facilities of fruits-vegetable-grains. If their produce is not stored properly then there is a huge loss. We have estimated that produce worth rupees 10 million (approx) is damaged due to lack of proper storage facilities. Therefore, I would like to request the traders and industrial houses to come forward to invest in making modern storage systems, cold storage, food processing units in India. Our farmers deserve modern facilities and it cannot be delayed further.”
He said, “Their (Opposition parties) niyat (intention), niti (policy) and nistha (dedication) were not there for the welfare of farmers. They only lied and enjoyed the penury of the farmers for their political interest.”
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment