Farmers hold protests in Kerala against new agriculture reforms bills

Farmers under the aegis of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) staged widespread protests in Kerala on Friday against the Farm Bills passed recently in Parliament, alleging that the new legislations will hand over the country's agriculture sector to corporate giants.

Senior CPI(M) leader and Vice President of AIKS, S Ramachandran Pillai launched the protest in front of the Raj Bhavan here and said the new agri bills will turn farmers into labourers of corporate giants. "The central government has passed laws that will turn all farmers into labourers dependent on giant corporates. Their aim is to hand over the agriculture sector to the corporates.

Through this move, our agricultural land, the production and sale of farm produce will be taken over by corporates. We are selling our agriculture sector to corporate giants," Pillai alleged. Noting that over 60 per cent population in the country were farmers, he said the Centre was not ready to take proactive steps to protect the majority. Hitting out at the central government, the AIKS leader said it was 'privatising' everything in the country, including the Defense and Space sectors besides the Public Sector Undertakings. AIKS is the peasants front of the ruling CPI(M). Meanwhile, CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in a tweet claimed that the newly introduced farm bills would "destroy" the Indian agriculture and farmers.

"The three Bills - Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020; The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce Bill, 2020; and The Farmers Agreement on Prices Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 - will destroy Indian agriculture and our farmers," he said in the tweet. The CPI(M) also said the Narendra Modi government "bulldozed 3 Farm bills through the Parliament, violating all parliamentary procedures".

"These new laws handover Indian agriculture, our produce and our markets to foreign and domestic agribusiness corporations," it said The left party alleged that thehandover of the entire sector to corporates will lead to the abolishing of Minimum Support Price, the complete destruction of PDS, promote unscrupulous traders & corporates to hoard food, sending prices up astronomically. It further alleged that the Bills will finish off price support given to ryots as well as subsidies given for supply of cheap food grain to people and will drastically change the agrarian sector into a corporate controlled sector with scant concern either for farmers or consumers. Protests are being held by over 350 farmers' organisations under the umbrella of All India Kisan Sangharsh (AIKS) Coordination Committee (AIKSCC). The three farm bills were passed by Parliament earlier this week.