Union Cabinet Approves To Repeal The Farm Laws Today, In The Winter Session Of Parliament

Union Cabinet of India has approved to repeal the three farm laws today, on November 24, in the winter session of the Parliament. Earlier, on November 19, on the day of Gurupurnima, PM Narendra Modi had announced that the government has decided to withdraw the farm laws, in a video message.

The union government today repealed the contentious farm laws and the Cabinet has taken up the 'The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021' for approval. The Farm Laws Repeal Bill will be tabled in the Parliament starting November 29. India has seen massive farmers' protests and consistent movement across the nation, since the last year, when the government had announced the three bills. Later this year, the bills were made into laws, but the BJP led government had to withdraw the laws amid protests.

According to farmers, the laws do not secure any financial right to them in the Agri sector, rather especially the small-to-mid scale farmers will be exploited massively by big corporates if the government doe not repeal the laws.

Question of MSP

However, still, many farmers are continuing their protests to achieve their basic demand of the constitutional right of Minimum Support Price or MSP for their produced crops. Notably, India has been suffering from farmers' suicides for the last few years, as the small-scale and mid-scale farmers are not getting adequate prices for their crops for their livelihoods. Additionally, the price hike of necessary fertilizers is a major problem, while government subsidy is not at all enough. Significantly, 80% of Indian farmers are small-scale farmers who have less than 2 hectares of land. In that situation, the farm laws withdrawal by the government is a big success for the farmers, and they are saying that the union government should focus on the MSP front now.

This has been quite a unique event in Indian history, at a time when the government has already been criticized often for the farm laws, revoking of Article 370 from J&K, and the CAA. The government bowed out on the farm laws; now opposition leaders and many concerned citizens are demanding that the union government should walk on the same path regarding the controversial CAA.