Amid indications that the ongoing farmers' agitation may intensify in the coming days, Congress party politician Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that nothing less than the revocation of the farm laws will be acceptable.
Gandhi also hinted that the farm laws are only to benefit the corporate firms close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Taking to Twitter on Monday, Gandhi said, “The 'Adani-Ambani Farm Laws' have to be revoked. Nothing less is acceptable.”
Gandhi alluded to the top Indian corporate firms led by ace industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani in a reference to the fact that the laws will benefit only corporations and not the farming community.
The laws in question are Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce Bill, 2020 and the Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020. Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce Bill allows farmers to sell their produce at places apart from their designated government-run agriculture market.
Farmers are up in arms against the laws due to exclusion of the state's minimum support price (MSP) mechanism under the law. The farmers are demanding that the government repeal the law as it does not have a provision for the MSP – the minimum price at which the state governments are obliged to procure produce from the farmer.
Congress and all other opposition parties are in support of the farmers' protest against the Modi government and will support the call for a country-wide strike on Tuesday.