PM announces repeal of three farm laws; constitutional process at the end of November

In his address to the nation today on the occasion of Dev Deepavali and Gurpurab, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the decision to repeal the three farm laws passed in September 2020. He assured the nation to complete the constitutional process of repealing the laws in the parliament session beginning later this month.

Besides, Modi said, the government was committed to strengthening the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism. He said a committee of the central government, state governments, farmer organizations, agricultural experts and agricultural economists would be formed.

The three central farm laws that have been the bone of contention are: 1) Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; 2) Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and 3) Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have been protesting the laws. The protests started in August 2020. The farmers have been camping on the Delhi borders — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for about a year now since November 27, 2020, demanding that the "black laws" be withdrawn.

There has been a court stay on the three laws since January.

The move to repeal the laws comes just a couple of months before the elections in states, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, which have been the epicentres of the farmers' agitation. The BJP has been getting feedback from the ground that the ongoing farmers' agitation could harm its electoral prospects.

The Prime Minister tried to portray his efforts for the farmers as a “holy act”. He said, “What I did, I did for the farmers. What I am doing, I am doing for the people of the country.”

According to him, the laws had been welcomed by farmers in general, to whom he expressed his gratitude. However, the government’s pious efforts failed to convince a small section of the farmers, whom he called nonetheless “significant”. He said he was not “fault-finding” on this holy occasion.

Now that he has announced the repeal of the laws, he appealed to the protesting farmers to go back to “their families and farms”.

Rakesh Tikait, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader, however, said the protests would not stop until the laws were repealed in the session starting on November 29.