Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed the opposition parties for spreading misinformation on the three farm laws. Addressing the farmers of Madhya Pradesh via video-conferencing, PM Modi said that the opposition parties in their election manifesto promised similar agriculture reforms. He urged the political parties not to mislead the farmers. He said that India’s agriculture, India’s farmer, can’t live in backwardness anymore. PM Modi said that it is true that no matter how hard the farmer works, but if there is no proper storage of fruits-vegetables-grains, if not done properly, then he has to bear a huge loss.“In the last six years, our government has worked keeping in mind the needs of farmers,” he said, adding that people should seek replies from political parties who talked about agricultural reforms in their manifestos.He said that these agricultural reform laws did not come overnight, adding that every government has discussed it extensively for the last 20-22 years.“Over last 20-30 years, central government and state governments had detailed discussions on these reforms. Agriculture experts, economists and progressive farmers have been demanding reforms,” the PM said.”I request all political parties with folded hands, please keep all the credit. I’m giving credit to all your old election manifestos. I just want ease in the life of farmers, I want their progress and want modernity in agriculture,” he said while addressing Kisan Kalyan event virtually.He accused the opposition parties sat over the Swaminathan committee report for years.“They didn’t implement the Swaminathan Committee recommendations. We implemented its recommendations and giving MSP of one and a half times the cost to the farmers,” he said.The PM said “if we had to remove MSP, why would we implement Swaminathan Commission report? Our government is serious about the MSP, that’s why we declare it before sowing season every year. This makes it easy for farmers to make calculations.”Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, are currently staying put at Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in protest against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. They have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations. However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring farmers better opportunities and usher in new technologies in agriculture. The government argues that the three farm laws will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.
