Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urges West Bengal governor to withdraw, repeal agri laws

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday wrote a letter to West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, urging him to intervene and ensure that "Three Black Laws" withdrawn and repealed forthwith.

By "Three Black Laws" Chowdhury indicated at the recent agriculture laws -- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

Chowdhury alleged that the Union Government led by the Bharatiya Janat party (BJP) is "conspiring to defeat the 'Green Revolution' by bringing in the captioned anti-farmer Bills."

"This is a well-designed conspiracy to destroy the 'anndata' farmer and the agriculture at the altar of a handful of crony capitalists. Drunk with power and determined to serve the crony capitalists friends, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi continues to be blind to the agony of the farmers and suppress every voice of protest. Modi Government is dictatorially subverting the voice of farmers' representatives inside the Parliament and has unleashed a draconian 'Lathi-Danda Regime' on the protesting farming community," Chowdhury said in his letter to Dhankhar.

"Modi Government has subverted India's federal structure, subjugated the constitutional mandate, suppressed the established parliamentary procedure by using its draconian majority to pass 'the three black laws' without any discussion or prior consultation. The laws were illegally and unconstitutionally passed in Rajya Sabha, without even permitting a division of votes and by using force by deploying marshals and by evacuating the members of Parliament," he alleged.

Chowdhury said agriculture experts believe that "under the garb of the Bills, the Modi government actually intends to implement the 'Shanta Kumar Committee Report' so that the Government is not compelled to make procurement at Minimum Support Price (MSP) through FCI (Food Corporation of India) and thereby save an amount of around Rs 1 lakh crores annually and this will directly cause adverse effect on the agriculture and farming."

"In these Bills, there is neither any provision for the protection of labourers rights nor for the protection of the rights of the persons, who are engaged in agriculture taking land on rent or on produce sharing basis. It seems that they have been left to fend for themselves," he said.

Chowdhury further alleged that the three Bills (now laws) are the "direct attack on the federal structure of the country. 'Agriculture and Mandis' come under the purview of the state governments under the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, but, the Modi government didn't consider it worthwhile to take the state governments in confidence on this issue. Protection and incentivising agriculture has been naturally the subject under the domain of the states, but, they were not consulted at all. On the contrary, market fees and rural development funds levied for the development of villages and agriculture was done away unilaterally, which is a flagrant transgression of constitutional provisions."

"The Anndata farmer and labourers will never forget the conspiracy of the Modi government to convert 'the disaster confronting the farmers' into an 'opportunity for the capitalists' under the garb of the pandemic," he added.

Urging Dhankhar, Chowdhury added, "We urge upon your good self to intervene and ensure that these Bills are withdrawn and repealed forthwith."

( With inputs from ANI )