Will rally 100K pro-reform farmers: Supreme Court panel member

Writes to CJI again, urging early release of committee's report on farm laws

Anil Ghanwat, a farmer leader who is one of the members of a Supreme Court-appointed panel on farm laws, on Tuesday said he will mobilise 100,000 farmers to Delhi in the next couple of months, demanding the “badly” required agriculture reforms even after the repeal of the three farm laws. 

He also wrote to the Chief Justice of India (CJI), urging him to consider releasing the report on the agri laws in the public domain at the earliest or authorise the committee to do so.

Meanwhile, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the main body spearheading the farmers’ agitation, said solidarity events are being planned around the world on November 26 by the Indian diaspora as well as international farmers' organisations. These include a protest in London at the Indian High Commission, a sleep-out in Surrey in Canada in addition to a sleep-out in Vancouver. Protests have also been planned in Paris, California, San Jose, Vienna and France.

On the reforms, Ghanwat said the farmers’ demand to make minimum support price (MSP) a legal guarantee and ensure procurement of all agri-crops at MSP is “not feasible and implementable”.

It is important to ensure that while the specific laws may no longer exist, the "reform impulse" that was reflected in the three farm laws is not "diluted," he said.

A senior leader of Shetkari Sangathana, Ghanwat said after the government’s decision to repeal the three farm laws in the coming Winter Session of Parliament, the panel’s report is “no longer relevant” but the recommendations are of great public interest. 

"The report can also play an educational role and ease the misapprehensions of many farmers who have, in my opinion, been misguided by some leaders....," he added. The three-member panel had submitted the report to the apex court on March 19. 

This is not the first time Ghanwat is requesting it. In a letter dated September 1, he had requested the CJI to release the report in the public domain saying its “recommendations will pave the way to resolve the ongoing farmers’ agitation”.

Ghanwat further said in the latest letter that the three farm laws were accepted "in-principle" by protesting farmers but were not accepted entirely because the government's policy process was not "consultative."