Image Source: economictimes.com
The President of India gave assent to three farm bills on 27 September, 2020. These farm bills named- The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020.
Since the passing of these bills, a lot of protests have sparked across the country from farmer’s side as well as opposition. The farmers called for Bharat Bandh on 8 December, 2020.
BJP veteran and minister for highways, road transport and MSME’s Nitin Gadkari had an interview with Times of India and he told that these farm bills are brought with the intention to increase income of farmers and benefit them.
He said that government is ready to indulge in talks with farmers and farmers union peacefully. But it can only happen when the people agitating against the government is ready to listen and is open to dialogue but asks instead of protesting against the bill when there is discussion from both sides.
Those who believe that makers of this bill do not know what are the issues of the farmers, and then in past 6 years our government had made such decisions which have helped the farmers a lot. Some too believe that corporate houses will benefit from this. But it’s not true. He gave the example of uber and ola. He said that contract farming will benefit the farmer’s ad especially those who don’t have capital to invest in farming.