Farmer’s Agitation 2020: An Appeal For Middle Ground
By: Jasmine Kaur
Tags: Farmers, Farmerprotest, Indian Government, Protest

Farmer’s Agitation 2020: An Appeal For A Middle Ground

By: Harjaap Singh and Jasmine Kaur

Why are farmers protesting?

Punjab farmers have been agitating for quite a few months against the three sets of laws passed by India’s government. This agitation & struggle has been going on since June 2020. However, it has only taken center stage in the world’s media in December 2020 when over 400,000 farmers marched to New Delhi as their final appeal to the government of India to roll back these laws, which concern:

The farmer’s ability to sell his produce at a local APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) that regulates the price at which the produce is sold. Contract farming and the resolution of disputes arising between a corporation & the farmers. The deregulation of the supply of essential foods like pulses, rice, and wheat.

The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the three sets of laws. There have been rounds of talks between the farmer representatives and the government’s ministers, but nothing concrete has been achieved yet.

Around the world, Sikhs, Hindus & Muslims have been protesting in solidarity with their farmer brethren and showing support by organizing peaceful protests, car rallies, and sloganeering in front of various Indian Embassies. The farmers protesting on the border of New Delhi have exact demands. They are against the institution of a free market without price regulation (i.e., minimum support price or MSP). Farmers feel that if there is a free market, the corporations will not give them a fair price, and they will have to sell their crops at a price below the MSP. Furthermore, the dispute resolution system enshrined in The Farmers (Empowerment And Protection) Agreement On Price Assurance And Farm Services Act, 2020 allows the farmers to only approach the sub-divisional magistrate, which takes away a citizen’s power to approach the civil court and hope for a fair result of the dispute. Lastly, the deregulation of the supply of essential foods will make big corporations hoard the supply of these goods and store them to drive the demand up and sell when the demand is at its highest.

The Way Forward

Ideally, the farmers would like to repeal the three sets of laws completely. However, that scenario is not likely. After six months of protesting, there does not seem a natural resolution in sight. Only recently has the government started negotiating with the farmers, which shows signs of progress. However, it is safe to assume that the government will not digest the humiliation of repealing three sets of laws. Therefore, in my opinion, the farmers should strive to seek amendment of specific points in these three laws that adversely affect them until these laws are more farmer-friendly. A few examples of changes to these laws include the inclusion of MSP in contract farming, allowing civil courts to have jurisdiction over any disputes between farmers and corporates, setting up farmer specific fast track courts, mediation centers, and the Supreme Court of India to have paramount appellate jurisdiction. If the government and the farmers can agree on amendments like these, the struggle and the agitation of the farmers would bear results that would satisfy the farmers and save the government from further humiliation.