President of Swaraj India and member of Jai Kisan, Yogendra Yadav, one of the leaders spearheading the farm movement in the country, tells Jyotika Sood why farmers are angry. Excerpts:

The three farm laws

They are an assault on Indian farmers. What the government presents as a historic gift is something farmers never dem-anded—no farmers’ organisation was consulted prior to or after the legislation. Something not a single large farmers’ body has welcomed. They are aimed at corporatisation of Indian agriculture. The new architecture makes farmers more vulnerable, exposed to corruption, exploitation and deprives them of the few support systems they have in the existing faulty regime.

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But agriculture is a state subject

It is a state subject, while agriculture trade and exports are on concurrent and Union Lists respectively. Essential commodity is a central act. But the dispute is about the APMC act. If the original APMC law was passed by state governments, how can the Centre amend it? This was one reason why the Vajpayee government in 2003 thought that the only way to amend the APMC act was by suggesting a model law to state governments. How come the Central government has the legal powers to do it? If you want to see what it is to be without APMC mandis go to Bihar, where paddy farmers get only Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,100 a quintal while farmers elsewhere earn Rs 1,500 to 1,600 for a quintal.

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State governments’ silence

Opposition governments are vocal—Punjab and some others. I don’t expect BJP state governments to speak. Trou-ble is that Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh had a patchy record with the BJP regime. They support something, then realise their mistake and want to go back. Both TRS and AIADMK initially supported these laws, but opposed them in the Rajya Sabha. It just shows their poor understanding of farm legislation.

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Way ahead for farmers

Farmers’ unions have appealed to the President not to give his consent beca-use of the manner in which the laws were passed in the Rajya Sabha—the speaker and deputy speaker didn’t go for votes, an eleme-nt-ary requirement. We want to know who voted for the bills and who didn’t. In any case farmers’ unions across India have given a call for a nationwide bandh. If necessary we will take it to court. No gov----e---rnment can survive with anti-farmer laws.

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Modi government says laws are about farmers’ freedom

This is propaganda. Ever since the mid-1970s there has been no restriction on farmers to sell their produce. It’s a lie perpetuated by the PM that farmers cannot sell their produce outside mandis. No law prohibits this. The PM also said that now they can export their prod-uce—a second lie, because exports have always been curbed and continue to be so. A week ago, onion exports were banned. These laws will result in anarchy, leading to a market where there is private monopoly, which the APMC act curbs. So, while sarkari mandis will continue to charge government fees, follow government regulation, private mandis will have none of these. This is not free market, but an unregulated one ensuring the freedom to exploit farmers. This is the not the freedom farmers want.