Response of SKM on Minster's statement of farmer protests..
Deeply ironic that Govt of India states in Parliament that 'various efforts have been made to end the protests' - Shameful that the Govt has no record of deaths in the current agitation of farmers: SKM
In a written response to a Lok Sabha question (No.337) yesterday, the Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare stated that the Government has made various efforts to end the protests. Ironically, that is indeed true. The BJP, both in the Union Government and in different states, has indeed made numerous efforts to end the protests, to slap false cases on leaders, to put them behind bars, to cut off supplies to the protest sites, to put barricades around the morchas and so on. The government has done its best to malign the farmers. On the other hand, other replies given by the Government in response to numerous questions are shameful!
The Government did not even articulate the demands of the farmers' movement accurately, on the floor of the Parliament, despite having formal talks with the farmers' representatives about it. On Minimum Support Price, Samyukt Kisan Morcha has been clearly stating that the movement seeks a legal guarantee for all farmers for all agricultural produce, on MSP that is declared with a C2+50% formula, and this has been debated extensively in the country. However, the Government of India chose to present this demand as "Issue related to procurement at Minimum Support Price"!
Minister Narendra Singh Tomar also stated that the "Government is always open to discussion with farmers Union and will remain open to discussion with agitating farmers to resolve the issue". If this was the case, there is no reason why the last round of talks between the farmers' movement and the Government ended on January 22nd 2021, a full six months ago! And the key question that the government chose not to respond to, given that it has no rational response to the same, is why the Government will not repeal the 3 anti-farmer laws.
In another reply (Question No. 297), the Minister shared figures of MSP hikes in percentages, year on year, over the past three years. It is clear that this government's MSP levels are not matching even inflation rates when it announces Minimum Support Prices, and SKM has already pointed this out.