CPI (M) Politburo member and All India Kisan Sabha national vice president S. Ramachandran Pillai on Friday called for a united effort at the national level to resist the anti-democratic and anti-farmer policies of the BJP Government.
“The controversial farm bills introduced by the Centre abysmally fall short legally and constitutionally. They will practically hand over the vulnerable agriculture sector to Indian and foreign corporates,” Mr. Ramachandran Pillai said, inaugurating a protest sit-in outside the Raj Bhavan organised by the Samyuktha Karshaka Samithi as part of the nationwide stir against the bills.
“The decision to promote contract farming, for instance, will estrange farmers from farm lands and the markets. Farmers will be relegated to the position of corporate labourers,” he said.
“In its hurried effort to get the Bills cleared by the Parliament, the BJP Government has disregarded Parliamentary procedures and attempted to use powers which, in reality, it does not possess,” Mr. Pillai said. “The Centre is attempting to impose its anti-people, neoliberal policies on the nation under the cover of the Coronavirus pandemic,” he alleged.
Though the Centre paints the bills as solutions to the problems plaguing the sector, it has, in reality, declined to introduce measures which would address such issues. “It is true that there is a crisis in the sector and that it is growing. Majority of the farmers do not find farming a profitable venture today. Agricultural costs have risen. But the flawed policies of the Government are responsible for the crisis,” he said.
Mr. Pillai drew attention to the M.S. Swaminathan committee recommendation that the MSP should be fixed at 50% more than the weighted average of the production cost. “But the Centre has declined to implement it,” he said. “No steps have been taken to increase productivity or ensure a fair price to farmers. These are the steps necessary to protect them,” he said.
Protests were organised under the aegis of the Samyuktha Karshaka Samithi in more than 250 centres in the State on Friday as part of the nationwide stir against the controversial farm bills introduced by the Centre.
Samyuktha Karshaka Samithi chairman Sathyan Mokeri presided over the Raj Bhavan protest. Left leaders and representatives of farmer organisations attended.
