2020 Indian agriculture acts

On 20 September 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the bills as a watershed moment in the history of Indian agriculture and stated the bills will "ensure a complete transformation of the agriculture sector" and empower tens of millions of farmers.[14] In the Prime Minister's Mann ki Baat radio address on 29 November 2020, he said that "all political parties had been making promises to the farmers but now these promises had been fulfilled."[15][16]

Several Union Ministers urged farmers not to have misconceptions about the reforms.[17][18] Rejecting demands for the inclusion of Minimum Support Price (MSP) as a mandatory provision in the Farm Bills, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said that, while the government was committed to MSP, it was "not a part of the law" earlier and "is not" today.[19]

The Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath, said the "farm bills and labour bills are very important steps in the right direction". She also stressed that the implementation of these laws must be right.[20]

On 1 January 2021, 866 academics from several educational institutes signed an open letter, expressing their support for the three farm laws. The signatories were from "DU, JNU, Gorakhpur University, Rajasthan University, Gujarat University and others".[21][22][23]

Kaushik Basu, former chief economist of the World Bank and professor of Economics at Cornell University called the new farm bills are "flawed" and "detrimental to farmers".[24] On 3 February 2021, 413 academicians from across the country and several abroad universities said in a statement that the new farm bills pose a major threat to farming communities all over India and urged the government to abandon it. The signatories to the statement were from Jawaharlal Nehru University, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IISc Bangalore, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, Delhi University, Panjab University, IIT Bombay, IIM Calcutta, London Film School, University of Johannesburg, University of Oslo, University of Massachusetts, University of Pittsburgh and others.[25]

On 4 February 2021, the US State Department expressed support for the laws stating that they would improve market efficiency and private investment, while encouraging dialogue between the government and those who oppose the laws.[26]

On 31 December 2020, the Kerala legislative assembly passed a resolution against the farm reforms and seek their withdrawal.[27][28]

The acts have faced protests from farmers in various parts of India alleging that it will hurt their earnings.[29] The main reasons for opposition is the uncertainty regarding the implementation of the reforms,[30] controversy surrounding the minimum support prices (MSPs)[31] and low bargaining power of the farmers are some of the fears that have led to the opposition to the bills.[32]

Lack of statutory support in the bills for the MSP is a major point of concern, especially for farmers from Punjab and Haryana, where 65% of wheat (2019) is procured at MSP by the Food Corporation of India and state agencies.[33]

Various opposition parties alleged that the bills were passed “unconstitutionally” in “complete disregard” of parliamentary norms and are anti-farmer and corporate-friendly.[34]

The protesters pointed out that the deregulation of the sugar industry in 1998, which paved the way for private establishments, did not result in a significant improvement in farmers' productivity or incomes. A state-led attempt in Bihar to deregulate the APMCs in 2006 has not resulted in an increase in farmers' income or improved infrastructure.[33]

The Shetkari Sanghatana, a farmers union in Maharashtra supported the bills and wants the market to decide the prices of agricultural commodities. It claimed that the minimum support prices have actually weakened farmers, instead of empowering them.[35][36]

The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a farmers organization, has demanded that the government send the bills to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and questioned the government's haste to get the bills passed.[37]

Since the proposal of these laws, different protests have come underway in different states of India. These protests are the first large-scale farmer protests since the Narendra Modi government came into power in 2014. On 26 November 2020, farmers from Haryana were stopped from entering Delhi by Haryana police.[38][39] At the border near Ambala, protesters were struck with water cannons and tear gas shells by the police forces; protestors threw stones and tossed police barricades into the river.[40] In response, the police used water cannons. Media have reported that trenches were dug by the police on certain routes into Delhi; the Haryana BJP government dug the National Highway connecting Haryana and Delhi. Sand-filled trucks and bulldozers were also placed on the path of the march to Delhi. Earlier, the house of Haryana's Chief Minister was surrounded by farmers.[41]