Interviewtimes 
Farmers are back at the Delhi borders with a renewed determination to force the Union government to provide a legal guarantee of the minimum support price for the purchase of farm produce. MSP has become the bugbear of the central government. A new round of infighting between the government and the farmers is imminent. While the government withdrew the three controversial farm bills after protests by thousands of farmers at the Delhi borders, it had assured them that the MSP would not be withdrawn and ways would be found to further strengthen it. However, it was non-binding to give him a legal sanction.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar dashed all farmers’ hopes when he told Parliament the government had never committed to granting legal authorization to MSPs. He said all the government has promised is to form a committee to make MSPs more effective and transparent, encourage natural farming and change farming patterns, and keep tabs on the country’s changing needs. Accordingly, a committee was formed. The government invited farmer representatives to join the committee. But they declined the committee for two reasons.
First, a legal guarantee for MSPs was not on the agenda. And second, the committee was full of people behind the drafting of the three controversial farm bills. Representatives of Samyukt Kisan Morcha – the umbrella body of farmers’ organizations – have said they would not join him unless passing a law on MSPs is part of the mandate. Government and farmer views on MSP remain so different.
The government should take the farmers into their confidence to find an amicable solution to the tiresome problem. Farmers and state government representatives, particularly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, should be invited to the consultation and included on the committee. It was peasants from these states who led the last agitation. In these states, the rumblings have started again. The national capital can hardly afford another blockade and round of violence.
