Farm bills should guarantee MSP, says JD(U) amid farmers' protests

Voices against the farm bills are getting louder within the NDA. After the BJP’s long-term partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) made its displeasure over the bills clear by asking Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal to resign from the cabinet, the other major constituent of the alliance, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), has demanded a provision to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for farmers.

There should be a law to make violation of the MSP a punishable offence so that companies don’t take farmers for a ride, the party said amid protests by farmers in the state ahead of the Assembly elections next month. 

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Surprisingly, the demand comes after party chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar accused opposition of creating “misunderstanding” on the bills and calling the farmers’ nationwide protests on Friday as “unnecessary”. “There are some people saying a lot of things on the two farm bills that have been passed without having any knowledge about them,” he had said. 

The party general secretary, K C Tyagi, however, said the bills should have a provision to protect farmers’ interests by ensuring MSP continues and the price should be calculated as per the Swaminathan Committee report. 

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“We have supported the bills in Parliament but it is also a fact that old NDA allies such as the Akali Dal have parted ways with the government over the bills,” he said.

He said farmers want a law to ensure private players will pay the MSP. “Any violation should be a punishable offence,” he Tyagi told in an interview to ThePrint. “Private players may exploit farmers and there should be safeguards in the bill,” he said, adding the party only wants to make the bills “more practical.” 

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Tyagi said the government has to allay fears of the farmers that they will get a raw deal from companies and private players. After the bills, the government’s control over food distribution and processing will weaken. “Will the government be able to distribute free grains at a mass level like it did during Covid? Such questions need to be deliberated on,” he told ThePrint.