The debate remained inconclusive, members remained anonymous as there was no way to know which side they stood, not even was there the option of abstaining. It was finally the voice vote with its Nayes and Ayes. Every step of the procedure was denounced, and the bulldozer was put to work. There was noise and chaos. It was impossible to know how many had supported.
It was with the sheer power of their own majority, that in Lok Sabha, the bills were passed. Two bills, and then the other one, were earlier brought by the government as ordinances, already promulgated earlier this year. The urgency with which the bills have been brought to replace them can be explained only as a politically motivated drive. Ordinances are to be cleared by the Parliament, but these were already implemented as laws, and any further discussion around them was curtailed. Our All India Kisan Sabha and Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union organised with others nationwide protests since then, despite the pandemic conditions. The opposition had started getting stronger, fuelled further by the rejection from the Punjab based Shiromani Akali Dal, an ally of the BJP. They had asked for the bills to get the proper Parliamentary treatment. As a result, bills were brought in the Parliament, though there was hardly any confusion about the end result. It was for the first time in the history of independent India when Parliament was used as a rubber stamp. With assertion of sheer power, the process was stamped to success. So far as the content of the bill is concerned, it is part of the same ‘one nation, one market’, with the notion that farmers can sell their crops to any buyer. But the fact is it is opening the door to any private agri-business concern with no MSP, only the throw away prices, and no insistence to pay even market cess.
All these steps are highly detrimental to the states as there will not be any revenue collection from commodities sold. Centre is simply crushing any federalism left in the Indian democracy. Also there is no measure ensured for the protection of farmer. When he is made to sign a contract for selling his crop, the companies never accept the price asked by the farmer. They always complain of the quality and demand lowering of prices. As the small farmers with holding one hectare of land form 86.2 percent of the entire peasantry are never on equal terms with corporate buyers, the gain is always on the richer side. Then there is also the system of taking land on lease, basically exploiting the farmers to the limit, with least payment on lease. Land given on lease, the farmers joins the suffering lot of landless labour, employed on his own field. It is the monopolisation of the agrarian sector, and in the same ratio, steep impoverishment of the small and landless farmers that has demolished all gains of the measures of land reform.
But the end is still harsher. The helpless poor farmer has been left even without the essentials as there is amendment in Essential Commodities Act, 1955. Earlier the Food Corporation of India used to buy grains and other food products from the farmers with minimum support price, now the government has stopped allowing the FCI to stock the grain by paying MSPs, and thus weakening the Public Distribution System that always came to the aid of poor and deprived. According to the amendments, agricultural products like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils and potatoes have been removed from the list of Essential Commodities.
To serve the interest of corporate houses and reap the gains of the agrarian sector, those in business, like larger trader export groups and Super Market chains like Reliance, Walmart, have been allowed to make bulk purchases from the farmers in harvest season when it is available at lower prices, which with force and bargaining, is made even cheaper. It is then hoarded till the prices go up in the market.
Essentials going beyond reach, starving farmers face the danger of becoming captive to companies.
The bill brought by the government that enables free marketing, storage, import-export, does not serve any interest of the farmers; it only pushes them towards famine like situation while benefitting the big corporations. Finally, it would be the victory of Finance capital, on the grave of democracy. (IPA Service)
FORCED PASSING OF FARM BILLS IN PARLIAMENT IS A SIGN OF AUTOCRACY
STARVING PEASANTS WILL BECOME THE CAPTIVES OF THE CORPORATES
Krishna Jha - 2020-09-24 09:32
Accountability is a sine qua non – an essential condition – to good democratic governance. And the condition for the survival of our democracy is commitment towards our Constitution, the edifice on which stands the country. Today we have been witness to total reversal of the same. There have been attempts to destroy the credibility of the Parliament itself, to destroy its character as a consultative institution, as a platform for debate, and to reject or pass any bill brought to it by the government. The bills must be discussed within limits of time, including the amendments. Then comes the division, of opinions, of negation or assertion. The speaker is bound to allow this. It was the three agrarian bills that the government was keen to pass. But the demand of division of members’ opinion was not accepted.