Assuring MSP will drive India to bankruptcy, says Anil Ghanwat

The demand to extend the minimum support price (MSP) to 23 crops -- if agreed -- will drive the country to bankruptcy, Supreme Court-appointed farm panel member Anil Ghanwat told The Economic Times.

Despite the prime minister's surprise announcement repealing the three agriculture laws, farmer leaders have maintained they won't budge until the laws are formally repealed in Parliament, while indicating that the stir for a statutory guarantee of MSP will continue.

"Whoever pays for it (MSP), the Centre or the state, will go bankrupt soon... This is a very dangerous demand and is not sustainable. If agreed to, then within two years the country would go bankrupt," Shetkari Sanghatana President Anil J Ghanwat told the publication.

Also read: Farmers harden stance, want talks with govt on other demands

He argued that if the government agrees to the demand, other farmers might come up with similar demands. "There would be agitations every other day, in every other state asking for some crops not in MSP to be included in it. Once you have given MSP to some, you have to give it to others, too," he said.

Ghanwat added that the government doesn't have the infrastructure to procure the crops or sell them. "The country's buffer stock limit is currently 41 lakh tonnes, but the government has had to procure 110 lakh tonnes of wheat and paddy. The government does not have the capacity to store this much grains, so these are kept out in the open, getting wet in the rain and getting rotten. Imagine if we add some more crops to the MSP list. How would they procure it, where would they store?"

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Sunday wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate resumption of talks with the government over their six demands, including a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP).

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(With PTI inputs)