Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the three farms laws, which were passed by both the Houses of Parliament in September 2020, were brought by the Centre for the benefit of farmers and were later withdrawn in the interest of the nation.
In an exclusive interview to news agency ANI, PM Modi said, “I have said this earlier also that farm laws were brought in for the benefit of farmers, but have now been withdrawn in the interest of the nation. I don’t think this needs to be explained anymore. Future events will make it clear why these steps were necessary.”
Asserting that he has always worked for the benefit of the farmers, the Prime Minister said, “I am someone who is on a journey to win the hearts of farmers. I understand the pain of farmers with marginal landholdings. I have always tried to win their hearts,” he said, adding, “I have won the hearts of farmers from across the country and they have always supported me.”
When asked whether the Centre is ready to hold discussions with farmers over the farm bills, PM Modi said discussions should never stop on any issue in a democracy.
“In a democracy, it is the primary duty of public representatives to engage in dialogue with the people of the country. Our government has always engaged in these discussions and we are not in favour of stopping them. Discussions should never stop on any issue. I believe people should hear my opinion and the opinion of my government and talks should always go on. Just like we hold a discussion on the budget before formulating it. We do not believe that all the knowledge in the world is possessed by ‘Gyan Babus’ and politicians,” PM Modi was quoted as saying by the news agency.
On November 19 last year, the Prime Minister had announced to repeal the three farm laws and apologised to the protesting farmers and said, “Today, I apologise if some farmers did not understand what we wanted to do through the farm laws. We have decided to repeal the three farm laws. We will withdraw all these three bills in the upcoming Parliament session.”
Farmers from Haryana, Punjab, and some parts of Uttar Pradesh were camped at Delhi borders for almost a year and demanded the government to withdraw the three laws — The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.
The Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the three laws in January 2021, but farmer unions refused to move from protest sites like Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur at the Delhi border. The Centre, which had held 11 rounds of formal dialogues with the farmers, had maintained that the new laws are pro-farmer, while protesters claimed they would be left at the mercy of corporations.
However, on December 9 last year after roll back of the farm laws by the central government, the farmers called off their year-long protest and vacated the Delhi borders and started returning to their homes from December 11.
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