New Delhi- A day after one of the members of the Supreme Court appointed Committee on now-repealed three farm laws released their report, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on Tuesday termed the panel’s recommendations “corporate biased”.
“The AIKS strongly condemns the recommendation by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee to bring back the three farm laws. AIKS would like to highlight the fact that the members of the SC appointed Committee were known for their strong faithfulness to the three Farm Acts unilaterally brought by the Union government. That is why the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) had called for boycotting the SC-appointed Committee,” the AIKS said in a statement.
The AIKS is part of the SKM that had been agitating since mid 2020s, against first the ordinances and then the Acts and suspended their agitation in mid-January 2022, more than a month after the three contentious farm laws were repealed by the Parliament.
Claiming that it is obvious that all the recommendations of the said Committee are aimed to facilitate pro-corporate reforms in agriculture, and hence, needs to be viewed critically, the AIKS said: “The observation that 85 per cent of the farmers in the country are in support of the farm acts is nothing but a concerted effort to distort the facts and to create a pro-reform environment to facilitate corporate takeover of agricultural land, agricultural markets and agro produces.”
“There is no institutional system of representation of the farmers’ organisations existing, hence the argument that a asilent majority is in support of the farm acts is a daydream of pro-corporate leaders like Anil Ghanwat, it added.
It was Ghanwat who had released the report on Monday.
Coming down heavily on the recommendation in the report of a cap on procurement of wheat and rice commensurate with the needs of the Public Distribution System, the AIKS said that this is against the larger interests of the farmers and “will further endanger the existing system of procurement based on minimum support price (MSP)”.
The AIKS also criticised the committee on many more aspects including the demand for MSP, which they claimed, was not in tune with the M.S. Swaminathan Committee.
Meanwhile, SKM member, Yogendra Yadav lambasted the sample size and quality of the feedback that the SC panel considered for preparing the report.
“Finally,4th pillar: “evidence based analysis”, a cover for opinions of SCC members, 3 known advocates of these laws,players turned umpires.
“Minor problem: did the court ask for their opinions? Wasn’t it about farmers’ grievances?
Now you know why SKM boycotted this farce. (Sic)” read one of his tweets.
–IANS