A look at the credentials of the four members of the committee formed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday to resolve the deadlock over farmers’ agitation reveals they have been vocal supporters of the Government’s new farm laws.
The committee comprise Bhupinder Singh Mann of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Anil Ghanwat of Shetkari Sangathan, Dr Pramod Kumar Joshi, former director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute; and agricultural economist Ashok Gulati.
Out of these four, Bhupinder Singh Mann is the only member who has supported the the laws with some “amendments”.
Ashok Gulati has been the most vocal supporter of the deregulation of agriculture markets. Gulati is an agricultural economist who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015. He is an Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture at the India Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). Gulati was also the youngest member of the Economic Advisory Council of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and member of the State Planning Board of Karnataka.
From 2011 to 2014, he was the head of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
The panel recommends minimum support prices of various crops to the Government, and is attached to the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
In May 2020, when the laws were still in the consideration process, he has also written opinion pieces for the Indian Express, titled “Challenges to Farm Bills Harken Socialist Era, Attempt to undo Agriculture’ 1991 Moment,” and “We Need Laws that Give Farmers More Space to Sell Their Produce -- New Farm Laws Fit This Bill”.
He wrote that the proposed “changes can go a long way in building efficient value chains and ensuring better returns for farmers. The consumers will also be ensured better products without burdening their pockets.”
However, in a more recent article for The Indian Express, titled ‘To help farmers, the right approach is through Farmer Producer Organisations, not APMC mandis’, he advised the Government to be prepared to given a written guarantee that the existing system of APMC markets and MSP will continue and be strengthened.
“The Government can also give in writing that the contract will be for the produce, not the land,” he wrote. At present, Gulati is on the Central Board of Directors of the RBI, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and commodity exchange NCDEX.
Dr .Joshi is a leading name in the field of agriculture research. He has served as the director of the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad, and the director of the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi. Dr Joshi was previously the South Asia Coordinator at the International Food Policy Research Institute and senior economist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Patancheru.
Joshi has strongly opposed giving a legal backing to minimum support prices and has advocated contract farming as a ‘win-win situation’ for all stakeholders. Joshi has written articles in past days regretting prolonged agitation by farmers and noting that the Centre had made all our efforts to accommodate genuine concerns of the protesters. Joshi has also said that the agitators have been changing goalposts and had begun by seeking Government assurance that the MSP won’t be discontinued.
An article in the Financial Express co-authored by Joshi with AK Padee, says, “The farm-agitations’ demand to repeal the three farm laws and legalise minimum support prices (MSPs) baffle us, given the apprehensions over the impact of the laws on the farmers are mostly misplaced.”
The two farm leaders on the panel --- Bhupinder Singh Mann of the BKU and Anil Ghanwant of Maharashtra-based Shetkari Sangathan -- had in mid-December met Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and called for the implementation of the laws after bringing certain amendments to satisfy the protesters.
Bhupinder Singh Mann is the national president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which is part of the All India Kisan Coordination Committee. He was Rajya Sabha member from 1990-96. He also helped form the All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC), a platform which aims to bring together various State-level farmers’ organisations. On 14 December, 2020, a group of farmers’ organisations, under the banner of the AIKCC, had handed over a memorandum demanding that the three laws be implemented, but with some amendments.
Anil Ghanwat is the president of the Maharashtra-based Shetkari Sangathan which has been backing the Government in the entire agitation by farmers. On August 20, 2020, members of the Shetkari Sangathan across several districts in Maharashtra submitted letters addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the local tehsildar’s office, welcoming the farm Bills. The organisation even took the streets and burst crackers to show its support for the laws.
Ghanwat said on Tuesday the new farm laws partially implement what his outfit has been demanding for decades. His attempt will be to improve them, he said, while coming out in support of reforms including permission for contract farming.