NEW DELHI
\nIndia\u2019s parliament on Monday passed a bill to repeal three laws aiming at deregulating agricultural markets, bowing to pressure from farmers who have protested for over a year to demand that the laws be rolled back.
\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s administration introduced the farm bills last year through an executive order, traditionally reserved for emergency legislation, triggering India\u2019s longest-running farmers\u2019 protest. Parliament then passed the legislation via a voice vote, drawing widespread criticism that it had rushed through the laws without proper debate.
\nIn a bid to end the protests ahead of the state assembly election in India\u2019s most populous Uttar Pradesh state early next year, Modi said this month his government would repeal the laws in the new session of parliament.
\nAs parliament reconvened for its winter session on Monday, both the lower and upper houses passed the bill to withdraw the laws meant to deregulate and open up agricultural markets to companies. Farmers have said the laws would leave them with scant bargaining power against big private purchasers.
\nThe controversial laws saw tens of thousands of people, including many elderly growers and women farmers, brave extreme weather and a severe second wave of coronavirus infections to camp out on the outskirts of New Delhi over the past year.
\nIn addition to their repeal demand, protesting farmers are also asking that Modi\u2019s administration introduce a law to secure government prices for produces beyond just rice and wheat.
\nThe government currently buys rice and wheat at state-set Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), but the subsidies only benefit about 6 percent of India\u2019s millions of farmers.
\nProtesters are demanding MSPs for all crops \u2013 a move that has galvanized growers across the country and taken the protest beyond India\u2019s grain-growing states of Punjab and Haryana.
\nThe government has not yet made any comment on the protesters\u2019 demand for MSPs.
\nFarmers celebrated the development but said the protest would only be called off when the government promised legislation on MSPs for all produce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI India\u2019s parliament on Monday passed a bill to repeal three laws aiming at deregulating agricultural markets, bowing to pressure from farmers who have protested for over a year to demand that the laws be rolled back. Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s administration introduced the farm bills last year through an executive order, traditionally reserved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-230069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n