Jalandhar July 19 ( ) President of Mahila Kisan Union Biba Rajwinder Kaur Raju has dismissed the ‘government committee’ constituted by the centre for deliberations on the Minimum Purchase Price (MSP) of crops and accused the Modi dispensation of continuing its policies against the interests of Indian farmers and the BJP’s cat has come out of the bag with the fresh notification about MSP committee and the saffron party does not want farmers’ welfare in any way.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Mahila Kisan Union President Biba Rajwinder Kaur Raju said before this notification issued by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, whatever doubts were expressed by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha regarding the intention of the Modi government towards the farmers have been proved to be true as the Center did not make any mention of enacting a law on MSP in the terms and reference of this official committee. Hence no suggestion and consideration could be given or discussed on enactment of MSP legislation, she added.
Criticizing the structure of this committee, the women farmer leader said only three representatives of ‘Sanyukt Kisan Morcha’, a front of more than 500 farmers’ organizations of the country, would be taken as members, while the Modi regime has inducted five of its loyalists in the committee who have openly advocated anti-farmer laws and are directly associated with BJP and RSS or supporting their policies blindly.
Biba Raju said this central committee is headed by former union Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal and the key member Ramesh Chand, member of NITI Aayog but both of them are the architects of anti-farmer laws.
The farmer leader added that apart from agriculture scientists, agricultural economists and principal secretary level bureaucrats of various states have been included in this committee, but no senior govt officials from the agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana have been members in the committee.
Similarly, three agri scientists from three agricultural universities of the country have been made members, but agri experts from Punjab and Haryana institutions have been neglected, indicating the wrong intentions of the central BJP government.
The woman farmer leader Biba Raju alleged that instead of enacting the MSP guarantee law, the Modi government wants to buy time till the 2024 general parliamentary elections through this committee because no time limit has been fixed for submitting the complied report to the government in the notification of this committee. She alleged that big agenda has been assigned to this committee as the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha never made such demands from the center.
The farmer leader Biba Raju expressed apprehension that the Modi government may indirectly bring back the black farming acts again by taking suggestions from the members through this committee, as such an item has been included in this committee’s proposals. Therefore, the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha and the farmers of the country should be alert in advance to the ill-wills of the BJP government, she cautioned.
