New, Delhi Sep 22 (KNS): Speaking at an interactive webinar on current pandemonium in Parliament and eventual suspension of Members of Rajya Sabha, Senior Advocate and Indian National Congress Party leader Ashok Bhan said,
In a statement issued to KNS reads, dissatisfaction of farmers in north India can endanger peace and internal security. Ramming through the bill without debate and in the Midst of huge pandemonium in both Houses of Parliament, that is widely opposed by all opposition parties has robed the enactment its legitimacy and democratic symbolism. The haste with which it has been rushed through has exposed BJP of its intolerance towards dissent on national issues and working to the dysfunctionality of parliamentary procedures and process. Ruling dispensation is so insensitive towards the issues of subsistence and survival of agitating farmers it is bound to result in alienation and deprivation of their right to life them permanently.
In choosing to ignore grave implications and bludgeoning protests against the new law,the central government has not been true to first principles of accountable governance. The Modi-2:0 seemingly is at war with its farmers.
One of the key problems with the ‘APMC Bypass Bill’ is that it leads to two parallel and very different markets, with different sets of rules, wherein the APMC set-up is engineered to collapse. These are markets where the traders are required to be licensed, where they are monitored and where they pay a fee. In the new set-up, the existing traders along with their commission agents are the most trade-ready. They will be the first ones who will move out of the mandi spaces and operate outside. This will obviously lead to a collapse of the mandis. Further, electronic trading like in e-NAM is riding on top of physical mandi structure in the country, not as a parallel system – if Mandis are destroyed without much trading, will e-NAM happen with farmer participation is an unanswered question,-Says the AICC leader.
Meanwhile, the new unregulated market space called the ‘trade area’ will have no oversight and the government will have no information or intelligence about who the players are, who is transacting with who for what quantities and at what prices. Having no intelligence will be a great excuse for the government not to intervene in the market. Today, the government is forced to step in when prices are seen to be crashing, especially from the mandi-based price intelligence system.
It should also be noted that exploitation of farmers is not just about prompt price payment but on other fronts too, starting from price discovery itself. However, the Bill looks at dispute or grievance only in this context, and even here assumes that farmers will be able to get the basic paperwork from buyers that they can use to get justice.
Importantly, the Bill seeks to regulate farmer producer organisations (FPOs), which are autonomous farmers’ institutions with their own internal decision-making with members. This is zealous over-regulation at a time when FPOs are in a nascent stage in this country. Regulating them is completely unnecessary.
All in all, this Bill does not give farmers what they need and they are asking for – remunerative prices to be guaranteed, oversight of players, transactions and prices, and empowering state governments to regulate and place all markets on a level playing field. (KNS)