Farm Bills: Bharatiya Kisan Union calls for nationwide protest on September 25

A day after the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Monday announced a nationwide protest against the new farm Bills on September 25.

Protests are already taking place in Punjab and Haryana since the Bills were introduced in Lok Sabha on September 14, 2020, by Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar.

Earlier in the day, BKU held protests across the district headquarters in Uttar Pradesh and while addressing the protest at the Muzaffarnagar District Magistrate office, the National Spokesperson of BKU, Ch Rakesh Tikait said that the government has become an autocrat. He stated that it was the first time that such 'unfortunate' incident has happened in the history of country's Parliament, where neither any discussion took place, nor the MPs were allowed to question while passing the agricultural Bills.

"If the MPs of the country don't have the right to ask questions, then why is PM Modi wasting Rs 900 crore of the public's income for the construction of the new Parliament amid the COVID-19 pandemic," added Tikait.

He alleged that the Centre government under the shadow of these Bills wants to take away the right of MSP of farmers. 

"Till there is no agreement, the farmers of the entire country will remain on the roads," said Tikait.

The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee has also announced to hold a country-wide protest on September 25 and as many as 10 central trade union have extended their support saying the BJP government should stop anti-farmers measures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday gave an assurance that the system of providing Minimum Support Price (MSP) will continue as earlier.

Speaking at the foundation stone laying event of nine infrastructure development projects in Bihar, the prime minister said that the changes are not against agricultural markets and things will continue to be as they were before.

"I want to assure every farmer that the system of MSP will continue as it used to happen in the past. Likewise, as in every season, a campaign is run for buying produce by the government, that too will continue to run," he said.

"The biggest proof of it is the figures for purchases made by the government during the past five years and the purchases made prior to five years before 2014. If I only talk about the oilseeds and pulses then the purchases by the government have increased by 24 per cent," Modi added.

He also assured that these policies were not anti-Mandis and stated that his government was committed to their modernisation.

Earlier in the day, a total of eight MPs were suspended from Rajya Sabha on Monday for unruly behaviour on Sunday. The MPs include Derek O Brien, Sanjay Singh, Raju Satav, KK Ragesh, Ripun Bora, Dola Sen, Syed Nazir Hussain and Elamaran Karim.

On Sunday, the Upper House of the Parliament, which witnessed a ruckus from the opposition over the Bills, has been adjourned till 9 am on Monday.

The ruckus was created when Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar was replying to the concerns raised by opposition MPs.