Govt climbs down; it is time for the farmers to take the deal as it is in their best interest
At last Narendra Modi Government budged to farmer’s protest by offering to put on hold the controversial three farm laws for one and a half years. On the 10th round of talks on Wednesday, Agriculture and Commerce Ministers Narendra Tomar and Piyush Goyal told the farmers union leaders that the assurance of putting hold the laws for 18 months will be given as an affidavit before the Supreme Court in the ongoing cases. Though Ministers requested the farmers’ leaders to agree on the offer and withdraw the protest on January 20th itself citing that it is a pious day of Sikh Guru Guru Nanak’s Jayanti, the leaders said that they want to talk to other leaders on January 21st and come back for the 11th round of talks the next day – January 22. These developments indicate that farmers are almost in a mood to withdraw their 60-day long protest blocking the borders of the Capital Delhi.
“During discussions, we said that the government is ready to put on hold the farm laws for one or one and a half years. I’m happy that farmer unions have taken this very seriously and said that they would consider it tomorrow and convey their decision on Jan 22,” said Tomar after briefing the media after the day-long 10th round of talks with farmers leaders.
Modi Government erred in the way they bulldozed these bills as Ordinance during COVID-19 lockdown in June 2020 and passing them in September 2020 in a controversial manner, when the Rajya Sabha was in total chaos.
It must remember that on Thursday, RSS No. 2 and General Secretary of the organisation, Suresh (Bhaiyyaji) Joshi in a detailed interview with Indian Express (published on January 20) expressed displeasure on the long continuing farmers’ protest and said that there should be a patch up in a democracy. He also said that this kind of long protest is not good in a democracy. Joshi’s observations make clear that RSS wanted the government to to climb down and patch up with farmers. The RSS observations in the detailed interview must have turned as an eye-opener for the BJP led Government to climb down from the previous positions[1].
In the morning the government faced a setback from the Supreme Court also on the petition filed by Delhi Police to ban the tractor rally scheduled on January 26, Republic Day. Chief Justice of India-led Bench rightly asked the government/ police as to why they are asking the Court to take an executive decision and refused to pass any orders and ultimately government withdrew the petition. These incidents show that the government is losing steam and appears to be indecisive.
Whatever said and done it is very good that the government has climbed down from its adamant nature and offered to withhold the three controversial bills for 18 months. Actually, after Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the laws in an unprecedented way to make a patch-up with protesting farmers, this was the only way out for the government. Here we must condemn the bullies in social media who abused farmers with all names and created a volatile atmosphere. So many low lives and paid trolls hired by the ruling party BJP and paid trolls of Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani companies (the beneficiaries of these farms laws) went overboard and abused and called the agitating farmers names. Now, what do they have to say after the government wisely budged? These are part and parcel of democracy.
Modi Government erred in the way they bulldozed these bills as Ordinance during COVID-19 lockdown in June 2020 and passing them in September 2020 in a controversial manner, when the Rajya Sabha was in total chaos. Within weeks we have seen Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance earn more than Rs.41,000 crores by selling a 10 per cent stake to foreign companies. This has created a lot of tension in the farmers’ selling points like Mandis, which are present in Punjab and Haryana. There were objections on Central Government interfering into the Agriculture Sector, which is a State subject. The government should have drafted these bills in the traditional way of discussing with all stakeholders and tabled and sent it to the Standing Committee for threadbare discussion. That is the democratic way. Anyway, let us hope that soon the 60-day-long farmers’ protest comes to an end and talks will go on in a democratic way.
References:
[1] Bhaiyyaji Joshi interview: ‘Not good for the health of society for an agitation to run too long…both sides must work to find a solution’ – Jan 20, 2021, India Express
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As said earlier these so-called 'Farmers' want anarchy, not solution. They have rejected the offer! What next?
The opposition will now start agitation for every issue and try and force the govt. on roll back other laws. Disappointed with govt. lack of spine in tackling such agitations which are holding the common people to ransom by blockading the roads for months together. What is the use of having Amit Shah as the home minister if they can't take tough decisions and run to the SC for everything.
If Modi abolishes archaic land ceiling laws, the agriculture in India will reach great heights. Indian agriculture is suffering because of excessive socialism in this sector. Modi needs to complete the task not completed by the greatest PM of India P V Narasimha Rao.
SC interferes executive decisions . It was really judicial overreach to put the act on hold now what is wrong to keep the act on hold to ally their fears,any way they are not real farmers. This will become new normal for SC to twist the arms of executive orders. then Parliament and people mandate are irrelevant .
Sikhs for justice, a Vancouver based khalistani outfit had raised a lot of money for Khalistan 2020. Since the pandemic interfered, they had divered that money to fund anarchist activity in Punjab. There is widespread khalistan support in Canada, which in turn reflects in Trudeau's active interference in India's internal affairs.Moreoverm, China in addition to creating the Covid pandemic,has used money power by cladestinely funding such anrchist activities both in USA and India ( Jan 6 attack on capital hilll), China's 2 main rival countries.
India needs to exercise great caution by keeping a close eye on Khalistani and Islamists activities and their funding base as these 2 could once again falre up any time with foreign funding to dastically destabilise India.
PGurus is loosing its steam in this case. u don't know the ground reality. u r beating around the bush, sitting remotely n w/o doing investive journalism from Punjab, Haryana or protesting site itself. I had a lot of respect for Pguru. No more. Even The Print did better than Pgurus in so called farmers andolanon. Hv u ever listened to Noted Agro economist n central university Chancellor , 93 year old Sardara Singh Johal from Punjab. u talk about name calling,hv u ever listened to Balveer Singh Rajewal, admonishing Khalistanies.
PGurus prime agenda is to promote Subramanian Swamy as the sole saviour of the hindus. Nothing wrong in that. But how will you justify Swamy's attempt to whitewash the Jagan govt.'s blatant conversion program in Andhra and the attacks on Hindus/Temple etc. Why are you not highlighting this?
PGurus goes by facts. Nothing more, nothing less.
On this website I vehemently stated that TTD Chairman Subba Reddy is a practising Hindu. However PGurus went by one Dosapati to claim that he is Christian. Now Subramanian Swamy rightly brought out facts regarding Subba Reddy. Chandra Babu playing Hindu card for his personal agenda and Modi Shah duo knows his real person.
Cannot understand Dr. Swamy's supporting the conversion activities in Andhra by Jagan. Dr. Swamy has done so much for the the Hindu cause elsewhere, but in Andhra why is he supporting the christian conversion activities which going on in full swing with support from ngo's, police, govt agencies and foreign agencies.
Just a trick to prevent tractor rally on 26th. Government will crack down on these very soon.
I doubt that farmers will accept this deal in this form. There are two simple reasons for that, 1) A lot of them are not farmers, 2) It was never about Farm laws, they wanted to create anarchy and they surely will.
However, if this solution works, then govt. should take serious measures to preempt and deal with such agitations. This happened with CAA, fortunately, corona came and the agitation fizzled out. This time they have gotten their way. This will boost their confidence immensely.
Good that Modi Government made compromise with farmers. The protests were going long time and it is good for any Government to climb down