The Centre’s decision to repeal the three contentious farm laws was “political and did not favour farmers”, member of Supreme Court-appointed farm panel Anil Ghanwat said on Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of the farm laws in his address to the country earlier in the day. It was the main demand of the farmers who have been protesting at Delhi’s border entry points since November 2020.
In January, the Supreme Court had formed an expert committee after several rounds of talks between the farmer unions and the Centre had failed. Ghanwat is a member of this committee.
The court had also suspended the implementation of the laws and tasked the committee to speak with unions and other various stakeholders to assess the impact of the three laws.
Ghanwat on Friday said that the farm panel had submitted several corrections on the three farm laws to the government, PTI reported. “But instead of using it to solve the impasse, Modi and BJP chose to backtrack,” Ghanwat said on Friday. “They just want to win elections and nothing else.”
He claimed that the government had not read the farm panel’s report submitted to the Supreme Court in March. The report was submitted by the committee after 12 rounds of consultations with farmer groups and other stakeholders.
“The decision to repeal the farm laws has now closed the doors of all types of reforms in agriculture and its marketing sector,” he said.
Ghanwat also said that the panel’s report on farm laws will be released in the public domain as its purpose was over, PTI reported. He has requested the Chief Justice of India, saying the “recommendations will pave the way to resolve the ongoing farmers’ agitation”.
“The committee has spent three months preparing the report,” he said. “This should not go into the dustbin. It should not happen. I will make it public.”
The Supreme Court-appoint panel will meet on Monday to deliberate on the fate of the report, Ghanwat said.
In March, the farmers had refused to hold talks with the panel, claiming that the committee supported the farm laws and was “pro-government”. On January 14, one of the members of the committee, Bhupinder Singh Mann, had recused himself from the panel. He had said that he did not want to compromise the interests of Punjab and farmers of the country.
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