Protest won't end says Tikait as SKM shifts focus to MSP

SKM issued a note explaining why farmers are demanding for a minimum support price guarantee

Renewing the demand for Minimum Support Price, the union of protesting farmer groups Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Wednesday issued a note explaining why farmers are demanding for minimum support price guarantee.

"This protest will not end yet. We have a meeting on November 27 after which we will take further decisions. Modi ji has said farmers' income would be doubled from January 1, so will ask him how it would be done. Farmers' victory will be ensured when they get the right price for their crops," BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said tweeted on Wednesday.

This comes a day Union Cabinet cleared the draft bill to repeal the three farm laws. The SKM document entitled "Mission UP- Defeat Anti-Farmer BJP" seeks to allegedly "debunk lies spread by the BJP central government that MSP is remunerative."

It said the CACP that recommends MSP for different crops to the central government takes into account A2+FL as the cost of production, which is much lesser than C2 (that includes interest on capital and rent of land) costs. Further, there is a significant difference between CACP's projection of C2 and the projection of the same by different states.

Also read: Cabinet clears bill to repeal 3 controversial farm laws

The C2 formula of calculating cost of cultivation includes the imputed cost of capital and the rent on the land to give farmers 50 per cent returns. A2+FL formulae takes into account paid-out costs incurred by a farmer and the value of family labour.

Giving statistics of MSP in various states, the SKM concluded that the "meagre MSP" announced by the central government fails to provide an adequate income to farmers. "When we compare the prevailing MSPs to the MSP as recommended by Swaminathan Commission at C2+50%, it is clear why farmers are not pleased with just the repeal of the three anti-farmer laws," the SKM alleged.

The note says while the repeal decision only averted a dangerous situation that would have developed in future, the present agrarian crisis marked by low prices, no assurance of government procurement, crop failures and mounting debt continues to unfold under Modi government.

Also read: Cabinet nod to bill to repeal farm laws mere formality, want govt to resolve other demands: Farmers

The SKM, which observed Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Diwas on Wednesday to mark peasant leader from Haryana Sir Chhotu Ram's birth anniversary, has lined up a series of programmes to highlight the achievement of the year-long farmer protest and will attend a 'Maha Dharna' in Hyderabad on November 25, they day farmers' protest had started Delhi's borders last year.

Even as the government has moved ahead with clearing in Union Cabinet a draft bill to repeal the three contentious farm laws, the issue continues to keep the political pot boiling.

While a BJP MLA from UP Ram Iqbal Singh said the death of over 700 farmers could have been prevented had the Union government withdrawn the three contentious agriculture laws within 30 days of the farmers' agitation, NCP leader Nawab Malik in Maharashtra demanded a dialogue by the Centre with farmers at the earliest to resolve their pending issues the demand for a law on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agriculture products and compensation to farmers who died during the year-long protest.

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