Suresh Sambandam, the new found poster boy of the DMK who was recently caught peddling half-truths and lies, is at it once again. This time, the ‘tech entrepreneur’ has peddled blatant lies about the farmer empowerment laws.
Suresh on December 28 tweeted that the “farm bills infringes into state rights” and claimed that the laws “eliminate Minimum Support Price” (MSP) and “excludes key farm items from essential commodities”.
However, all these statement made by Suresh Sambandam are baseless and are in contradiction to the what the farm laws are.
Here is an explainer busting each and every claim made by the DMK sympathizer:
Claim 1: MSP will be scrapped
Truth: Time and again, the Government of India has clarified that procurement through Minimum Support Price (MSP) will continue and farmers can sell their produce at MSP rate.
In fact, in the ongoing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS), Government of India continues to procure Kharif crops at MSP rates from farmers as per existing MSP Schemes.
Procurement has been going on smoothly across different states in India that includes Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Tamil Nadu to name a few. 462.88 LMT of paddy has been procured up to December 28 registering a 24.90% increase against the corresponding purchase of 370.57 LMT last year.
About 57.47 lakh farmers have already been benefitted from the ongoing procurement operations with MSP value of ₹87391.98 crore.
The Central Government, based on the proposal from the States, approved for the procurement of 51.66 LMT of Pulse and Oilseeds for the 2020 Kharif Marketing Season for the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh under Price Support Scheme(PSS).
Claim 2: State rights will be infringed
Truth: The two bills that have been passed will not lay a finger on the State Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts as they are state Acts. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 seeks to create more avenues for farmers to sell their produce. It will promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce outside the physical premises of markets notified under State Agricultural Produce Marketing legislations.
Under the new system, farmers will have the option to sell their produce at other places in addition to the mandis. In simple words, it empowers the farmers by giving them the choice to sell their produce where they get a better price.
In fact, the contract farming laws enacted by the Centre is modelled on Tamil Nadu’s contract farming laws that was passed in the year 2019, making Tamil Nadu the first state in the country to have a law on contract farming.
Claim 3: Excludes key farm items from Essential Commodities
This is just an outright lie peddled by Suresh Sambandam. Nothing has been removed from any list. Even a layman would know the difference between ‘deregulation’ and ‘exclusion’. The amendments to the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 deregulates agricultural commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, potato, etc from state controlled production, supply, and distribution. The amendment states provides that the central government may regulate the supply of certain food items including cereals, pulses, potatoes, onions, edible oilseeds, and oils, only under extraordinary circumstances like war, famine, extraordinary price rise and natural calamity of grave nature and let the price be determined by the market in normal circumstances.
For all his claims about being an ‘entrepreneur’ and having and ushering in a ‘masterstroke’ for Tamil Nadu’s growth, the man is opposing something that exactly seeks to do that. But it is not surprising given the fact that the man is a DMK sympathizer.
This is not the first time Suresh Sambandam has been caught peddling lies. Earlier, he exposed his shallow knowledge on history, politics and economy in an interview with ‘Neeya Naana’ Gopinath to Behindwoods YouTube channel. Back then, he had proved to be nothing more than a Murasoli reader who is wise enough to fabricate data in order to portray DMK as the pioneer of development politics.
To know more about the farm laws and the surrounding protests, click here.