TPCC President and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy today accused the BJP-led Centre of misleading the nation on the issue of the new agricultural laws and on the continuance of the MSP system.
The TPCC head, along with Congress MPs Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and A Revanth Reddy, addressed a press conference at the Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi to discuss the answers he received to three 'unstarred questions' (questions asked by members of Parliament to which they seek written answers instead of verbal responses) which he had raised on the farm Acts issue at yesterday's Budget session.
He said that he, along with some other MPs, had raised questions regarding the average market price for crops, the adjudication of disputes under the new farm laws and the consultation with stakeholders on the formulation of the laws.
"Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar gave a written reply to the questions we raised on February 2. However, he provided false and misleading replies to all the questions. The Centre's approach to the entire issue has been flawed. No stakeholder was even consulted before the introduction of the laws," Reddy alleged.
"Tomar's replies clearly showed the BJP-led Centre had not conducted any studies on how these laws would impact the incomes of small farmers - it has no evidence to show that the Acts would lead to a doubling of the farmers' incomes either. The proof of this lies in the fact that farmers across the country have lost over Rs 50,000 crore cumulatively as they were unable to sell their produce at the relevant MSPs. Tomar's answers to my questions clearly show a huge difference between the MSP and the actual price at which the farmers finally sold their produce. PM Modi and his government are, therefore, clearly not serious about continuing the MSP system," he added.
Flaying the Centre for "eroding" the federal legislative structure of India, the Congress leader said, "This government has made huge policy changes to a state subject - agriculture. In 2017, it introduced the Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (APLM) (Promotion & Facilitation) Act which superseded the states' specific agricultural policies brought in after the introduction of the Model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act. The Centre also modified the APMC Act itself. In February 2020, it announced financial disincentives to the states not implementing the APMC reforms. Why was this coercion necessary? Such behaviour is unacceptable. The Centre, of course, justified it actions by claiming that only six Indian states had implemented the provisions of the 2017 APMC Act. This is entirely false as, by July 2019, more than 20 states had implemented most of the provisions of the Model APMC Act(2017). The union government itself had revealed this at a conference of the state Agriculture Ministers held on July 8, 2019. This information is even available on the Agriculture Ministry's official website."
"The government was also misleading the nation when it claimed that it had found overwhelming support for the new laws. There were never any comprehensive meetings to even discuss the introduction of the laws with any stakeholders. Thus, there was no endorsement for them at any official meetings. Therefore, saying that these new laws have been discussed and endorsed is utterly false," he said.
The Nalgonda MP also alleged that the union government had provided a "false rationale" for bringing in the agricultural legislations, and claimed that the "real reason" was that the latter wanted to reduce the states' regulatory role in the agriculture sector simply in order to "benefit big agri-business players such as Adani-Wilmar, Reliance, Walmart and Amazon".
"In the name of reforms, the Centre's three Acts have paved the way for the exploitation of the farmers at the hands of large agri-businesses by removing all the state-level regulatory mechanisms," he said.
Continuing his scathing attack on the Centre, Reddy added, "After bringing in the anti-farmer legislations and compelling the farmers to protest, the Centre is now adopting extremely anti-democratic methods to suppress their ongoing agitation. The protestors are being denied access to basic amenities like drinking water, electricity and toilets - even local residents have been warned against helping the farmers. The police brutality being used to subdue them, however, is perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Centre's treatment of the protestors. The inhuman treatment being meted out to them is shameful."
The TPCC head also condemned the Telangana state government for entering into "a secret pact with the BJP" on the issue of the new farm laws, and lashed out at Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for his silence on the issue.
Describing the CM's behaviour as "highly insulting" to the farmers, he claimed that while the NDA regime was harassing the farmers of the nation, the KCR government in Telangana was exploiting the farmers of the state.
Reddy also strongly condemned the CM for his decision to close down the state's grain procurement centres.
(His critique of the KCR government strongly echos the allegations made by fellow party leader A Revanth Reddy who had also recently
assailed the CM for being "a secret ally" of the BJP-led Centre as well.)
Like Reddy, many other Congress MPs voiced their concerns about the ongoing stalemate between the Centre and the farmers, and announced that the party would support the farmers' agitation.