BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who has publicly supported farmers in opposition to agricultural laws, has introduced a private member’s bill seeking legal guarantees for MSP – a demand on which farmers and the government are divided. The bill, which is awaiting approval, seeks a 50% assured return on the comprehensive cost of production of a crop for farmers and a Rs 1 lakh crore fund to compensate them in case they are forced to sell produce below the MSP. talks.
At present, MSP is available on 22 agricultural commodities other than sugarcane for which the government promises fair and remunerative prices. The Bill envisages a legally guaranteed MSP for 22, with an annual financial outlay of Rs 1 lakh crore. It also proposes a separate department to enforce the legal guarantee of MSP and six months imprisonment for traders who fail to comply.
Parliament last week passed a bill to repeal three controversial agriculture laws. However, the government has opposed the farmers’ demand for a legal guarantee for MSP.
Gandhi wrote to the PM a day after his announcement, saying that many “innocent people” could have been saved, and demanded “stern action” against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, who had son Ashish Mishra. Arrested for October 3 incident Lakhimpur Kheri, which took the lives of four farmers, was the first BJP leader to do so. Earlier, in October, Gandhi had condemned the incident at Lakhimpur Kheri, leaving him out of the new National Executive Committee of the BJP. His mother Maneka Gandhi was also excluded.
The bill by Gandhi is called the Farmers’ Right to Guarantee Minimum Support Price of Agriculture Produce Bill 2021.
While any member of either House can introduce a private member’s bill, since 1952 just over a dozen have been ratified by Parliament. The admissibility of a private bill is decided by the Chairman (Vice-President) and the Speaker in the case of Rajya Sabha. The matter of Lok Sabha, and these Bills are taken up on Friday. Opposition parties like Congress have also supported the demand for MSP guarantee.
Gandhi, who released a book presenting “Manifesto for Rural India”, wants the MSP to be calculated at a profit margin of 50% from the farmer’s comprehensive cost of production, including actual paid expenses on inputs, unpaid households. The cost of labor is included. and excluded rentals on agricultural land and immovable agricultural properties. It was first recommended by the Swaminathan Committee in 2006.
It said, “Any farmer receiving a price less than the MSP price declared above shall be entitled to compensation equal to the difference between the price received and the guaranteed MSP.”
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