Farmers Declare They Won’t Go Back Till MSP Guarantee is Given, Govt Says It Has Announced a Committee

Even after the Prime Minister’s announcement on Friday to cancel the three controversial farm laws and setting up a committee to look at the issue of minimum support price for agricultural produce, farmer leaders have said they will not go home until a “guarantee on MSP is given” and the three Acts are repealed by Parliament.

The PM in his address to the nation appealed to the protesting farmers to return home and assured them that the three laws will be repealed during the upcoming session of Parliament starting from November 29. He also announced a new committee to look at making the “MSP more effective and transparent” and said the panel will comprise government officials of the Centre and states, farmer leaders, and experts and scientists of the agricultural sector. Farmer leaders Rakesh Tikait and Darshan Pal, however, said the protesters will not go home until the laws are repealed by Parliament and a separate law “guaranteeing MSP” is brought. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) will hold a meeting later in the day to decide the future course of action.

A senior government official said the assurance to repeal the laws had come from the highest executive authority (PM) and the farmers should trust his word. “The Bills to repeal the three farm laws will be brought before Parliament and we expect they will be passed unanimously. The Bills will then go to the President. The PM has assured that the matter will be completed in the upcoming Parliament session that ends in December,” the official said.

He added that the minimum support price is already defined under the National Food Security law and a committee has been announced as well to make the MSP more effective. “The farmers can lay their case on MSP before the said committee, which will be formed. Their leaders will be a part of it,” the official said.

The farmers are also demanding the scrapping of the Electricity Amendment Bill, which the government had earlier assured to withdraw during talks last year. The government had then also agreed to exclude farmers from the penal provisions of the anti-pollution Bill. A senior farmer leader said the protesters would continue to sit-in at the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders of Delhi until these demands are met and the laws are repealed.

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