The Supreme Court, on January 12, suo motu extended its powers from examining legal challenges to legislation to one that can take on the role of Parliament and order discussions on contentious laws. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, stayed the implementation of three new farm laws that have triggered nationwide protests by farmers, particularly at Delhi’s borders, and constituted a four-member panel to deliberate with all stakeholders and submit a report to the apex court within two months. This is, perhaps, the only instance of the apex court staying the implementation of a law without even hearing the parties concerned argue its prima facie constitutional validity. There were ample grounds for discussing the constitutional validity of the three laws, but those who wanted to discuss it, especially representatives of farmer unions, were given no chance to do so.
Fields To Streets
Facing a government unwilling to repeal new farm laws, farmers brace for a long haul
The majority of unions representing the agitating farmers have rejected the court’s effort at diffusing the crisis that has seen eight rounds of inconclusive talks between protestors and the government. The government needed an exit without appearing to back down, and the court provided the government just that—all four members of the panel have publicly supported the laws, and the government now has at least two months to tire the agitating farmers who have been camping at Delhi’s borders, braving biting cold, hail and thundershowers.
The unions see the panel as an extension of the government, and have declared they will not attend the panel’s meetings nor settle for nothing less than repeal of the laws. So, even if the court’s order compels the unions to appear before the panel, the likelihood of any resolution is clearly remote. The ongoing agitation seems set to intensify over the next weeks.
Uttar Pradesh: Sudhir Panwar, a former member of the Uttar Pradesh Planning Commission, has been camping with protestors at Delhi’s borders for the past week. “This agitation is unlike any other as there is no one leader. The demand for repeal of the new laws and for making MSP mandatory is the leader,” he says. Farmer leaders stress that meticulous planning has gone into making the peaceful agitation a success, with more young people getting convinced about the cause and staging various forms of protest. While media reports have focused on farmers from Punjab and Haryana dominating the scene at Delhi’s borders, many stressed that police barricades and lack of unreserved compartments in the few trains linking rural areas with the capital are major hassles in joining the agitation. Yet, there are farmer representatives from various parts of the country at the rallies. Panwar points out that hundreds of vehicles are plying between Delhi and villages in western UP as farmers join their brethren for as many days as they can spare from their work on the farms.
Maharashtra: Former MP Raju Shetti, who had placed a private member’s bill in Parliament in 2018 seeking to make MSP mandatory, says the agitation is not limited to the capital as protests in various forms, like picketing in front of outlets of Adani- or Ambani-owned firms, including Reliance-run petrol pumps, are happening in many states. “If fair and remunerative price, which replaced the earlier statutory minimum price, can be made mandatory for sugarcane, then why can’t the same rule apply to other farm produce?” asks Shetti. Pointing to the low prices maize and tur dal farmers are getting in the absence of mandatory MSP, he says the lack of fair price affects all, even those farmers who sell part of their produce to government procurement agencies in some states, particularly in the south. Maharashtra farmers are planning to stage more protests outside outlets and offices of companies owned by Adani or the Ambanis, especially in Mumbai.
Tamil Nadu: Farmers in the southern state are banking on their MPs to raise their demand for making MSP compulsory. “There have been no big protests due to various farm reforms over the years, including Direct Purchase Centres from where the government buys stock for its welfare programmes and PDS,” says R.V. Giri, national president of the Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations. There are also regulated marketing committees for monitoring sales, and no disincentives for transactions outside these markets. For example, traders who transact outside the markets have to pay just one per cent of the value of the produce they buy as market fee. “Around 10 per cent of the overall volume is being traded through regulated markets,” says K. Shamugam, a member of the Namakkal Farmer Producer Company. For nearly 30 years, the farm market has been functioning under virtually deregulated conditions as commission agents have been banned in Tamil Nadu—also the first state to enact a law on contract farming, based on a model legislation put out by the Union ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare in May 2018.
Karnataka: Protests by farmers in solidarity with the agitation in Delhi and against the Karnataka government’s recent amendment to the Land Reform Act, which removed restrictions on the purchase of agricultural land, have intensified in Bangalore since early December 2020. “There was good participation in the Bangalore sit-in from December 16 to 31 despite hectic farm activity during the year-end months,” says Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha president G.S. Bayyareddy, who is also state convenor of the All Indian Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC). The AIKSCC forum has been expanded by including several other groups such as the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangh, All India Kisan Sabha, Karnataka Janashakti, trade union CITU and students’ organisation SFI to form a committee called Samyukta Horatta (joint struggle).
Madhya Pradesh: Demonstrations are being held at the block level across the state despite the police imposing restrictions on movement of tractor trolleys. “As the concepts behind the demands of agitating farmers in Delhi are becoming clear, more farmers are joining the protest,” says Kedar Sirohi, a farm activist, citing a recent protest in Lahar near Gwalior, where farmers arrived in large numbers on over 1,100 tractors.
Bihar: The state, which accounts for one of the largest migrant populations in the country, was among the earliest to allow farm produce to be sold outside mandis. Instead of benefiting most farmers, landholdings of big and powerful landlords have grown larger. “We have no means to travel to Delhi, but we fully support the protests,” says Vijay Jha from Bhagalpur. For most farmers owning land or working as sharecroppers, it is a matter of eking out a livelihood.
West Bengal: Peaceful protests lasting 2-3 hours are being staged in front of the governor and offices of collectors and SDMs across the state. Protests were also held recently near panchayat offices in around 2,000 villages. “As more farmers are realising that the new laws will spell a death knell for their livelihood, the number of protests is increasing,” says AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah. “Punjab and Haryana farmers at the forefront in Delhi are backed by farmers across the country. The agitation was a calculated move that would have made Mahatma Gandhi proud, given the efforts being made to keep it peaceful and pose no inconvenience to the public.” A big event proposed for Republic Day is a farmers’ parade on tractors in state capitals after the main event on Rajpath.
By Lola Nayar and Puneet Nicholas Yadav with inputs from G.C. Shekhar and Ajay Sukumaran