The Coffee Club meets once every 10 days. It also includes retired bureaucrats, former judges and army personnel. This think tank was behind the protests by farmers in Delhi and surrounding areas. And for them it came as a pleasant surprise when the Prime Minister repealed three controversial agriculture laws. Retired state cabinet secretary SS Boparai says, “I am happy that the bills have been withdrawn. The government has realized that it is not helping the farmers. But our fight is not over yet. We now have to fight for a legal guarantee for MSP or MSP.”
MSP is a kind of safety net or insurance for farmers when they sell selected crops. Government agencies buy these crops, usually paddy and wheat, at a set price, which covers the cost for the farmers and no product can be sold below this set rate. Encouraged by the repeal of the three laws, farmers are now pushing for envelopes to ensure that this demand is also met. This legal guarantee assumes significance as it ensures that no changes will be made tomorrow and farmers can go to court in case the MSP is tampered with.
Read also | Explained: As 3 agricultural laws face the axe, why enacting it takes equal effort to repeal a law
This is a pitch that agriculture experts like Devendra Sharma are taking forward. He tells News18.com, “This is the most unfair. The farmers of Punjab contribute about 45% of the agricultural produce in the country and hence need to be assured that prices will not suffer.” He rejected the view of experts and economists that MSP as a legal guarantee There will be an additional burden of Rs.17 lakh crore on the exchequer.
As News18.com travels to the outskirts of Chandigarh, where most mandis are empty as the harvesting season is over, a handful of farmers prepare to leave for Delhi, where a year-long period of protests Anniversaries are being celebrated. But these farmers tell us that they don’t understand why they need to continue their protest because agricultural laws have been repealed. Sukhdev Singh says, “The reason was so strong for us that we decided to leave our pind (village) and live on the border of Delhi. Our family faced difficulties in the villages but they supported us. Now we want to go back…but we have been told to stay. I don’t know for how long.”
But in Punjab, MSP has now become an election issue. Sources say that in a meeting of the Congress leadership in Delhi it has been considered that MSP and legal guarantee should be the next point of the agitation and it will be part of their manifesto if legal guarantee is not ensured. Center.
Read also | Meet the Tickets: A decade into oblivion, agricultural law leaders fight to protect a legacy
Deposed Congress chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who is set to contest the Punjab elections next year in alliance with the BJP, told News18.com, “MSP is important but then the government keeps announcing it from time to time. I think farmers should trust the PM now that he has repealed the laws.
It’s just early days. Punjab is now facing elections on a different scenario as the electoral issue has now changed. MSP could be the next new flashpoint. The Coffee Club of retired bureaucrats is now planning to step up its campaign.
read all breaking news, breaking news And coronavirus news Here. follow us on Facebook, Twitter And Wire,
,