Ahead of meet with Centre, farmers demand ordinance for MSP guarantee

Farm leader Sarwan Singh Pandher Saturday asked the Centre to bring an ordinance on giving a legal guarantee to MSP and said the entire country is looking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing the farmers' demands.

He also expressed hope that the farmers will get "good news" after the Sunday's meeting with Union ministers, saying now the "ball is in the government's court".

The demand comes a day before the fourth round of talks between farm leaders and Union ministers over their various demands.

Stating that the Centre has a right to take "political" decisions, Pandher said, "If it (Centre) brings an ordinance and it can bring it overnight, if it wants so. If the government wants resolution of farmers' protest, then it should bring out an ordinance with an immediate effect that it will enact a law on MSP, then discussion can proceed further."

A legal guarantee to the minimum support price for crops is a key demand of farmers currently camping at the Punjab's borders with Haryana.

Speaking to reporters at the Shambhu border on Saturday morning, Pandher said as far as the issue of modalities is concerned, any ordinance has a six-month validity.

In another media interaction in the evening, Pandher said, "The whole country is looking to the powerful Prime Minister to gather up courage and take a decision on ordinance on legal guarantee to MSP and debt waiver."

"We hope that we will get good news from tomorrow's meeting. We have not taken back our programme of going to Delhi.

If they (the Centre) accept our demands, then the issue can get resolved. Now the ball is in the government's court," he said.

Pandher said that "we will go with an expectation that the Centre takes a decision for farmers and labourers".

"We will go with a positive mind," he added.

Asked if the government may give an offer for the formation of a committee on the MSP, Pandher said, "We do not have such inputs."

It is not appropriate for making any comment on the basis of any speculation, he said. "We have clearly said frame a law on MSP."

When the government framed previous (now-repealed) laws, the farmers were not even consulted for the same, said Pandher, who is the general secretary of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee.

At the presser during the day, Pandher said as far as the demand for "C2 plus 50 per cent" as per the Swaminathan Commission's recommendation goes, the government was giving a price according to "A2 plus FL formula. Under the same formula, an ordinance can be brought."

On the issue of farm debt waiver, Pandher said the government is saying that the loan amount has to be assessed. The government can collect data from banks in this regard, he said, adding, "It is a question of political will power."

"They (the Centre) are saying it has to be discussed with the states. You leave aside the states. You talk about the Centre and central banks and then finalise how to waive farmers' debt," said Pandher.

The other demands of farmers are also important, he further said.

Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal also said that the government should bring an ordinance for "giving something to people of the country".

"The government should bring the ordinance with such an intention that it is implemented with immediate effect, and within six months, it can be converted into a law and there is no problem in that," said Dallewal, who was spearheading the 'Delhi Chalo' march along with Pandher.

On claims suggesting that giving the MSP on all 23 crops will require a huge funds, Dallewal said one study says that a sum of Rs 2.50 lakh crore was needed for this.

Another study suggests that only Rs 36,000 crore is required, claimed Dallewal.

"If the government seriously looks at producers and consumers and gives less attention to corporates, then the matter can be sorted out," he said.

He also stressed that small agro-based industries should be promoted in villages.

Dallewal said the agriculture sector is generating 50 per cent employment.

"The agriculture sector has 20 per cent share in the GDP...why is it difficult for the government to give Rs 2.50 lakh crore?" he asked.

"We are demanding a law on the purchase of crops at an MSP. Anybody can buy a crop in any state but should not buy it at less than the MSP, it is our demand," he said.

Pandher said that the government was importing crops like pulses from the other countries.

If the government guarantees an MSP on crops like pulses, farmers can produce them here, he said.

Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai and farmer leaders will meet on Sunday for the fourth round of talks. The two sides met earlier on February 8, 12 and 15 but those talks remained inconclusive.

On the fifth day of their "Delhi Chalo" march -- called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha -- the farmers stayed put at the two border points of Punjab and Haryana as they press the Centre to accept their demands, including a legal guarantee to an MSP for crops.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act-2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21.