NEW DELHI: Though he blamed the government for its non-consultative approach behind the current protests that led to the decision of repealing the farm laws, SC panel member Anil Ghanwat said the protesting farmers have been “misguided by some leaders who do not seem to appreciate how a minimally regulated free market can allocate national resources to their most productive use”.
Besides Ghanwat, a senior leader of the Maharashtra-based farm organisation Shetkari Sanghatana, the other two members of the panel were agriculture economists and farm sector experts Ashok Gulati and P K Joshi.
This is Ghanwat’s second letter to CJI N V Ramana, requesting the report of the panel be made public. He had earlier written to the CJI in September, claiming that the recommendations of the three-member committee would pave the way to resolve the crisis and end the farmers’ agitation.
Urging the CJI for the second time to make the report public, Ghanwat on Tuesday wrote, “After the government’s decision to repeal the farm laws in the coming winter session of Parliament, the committee’s report is no longer relevant with regard to those laws but there are suggestions in the report on farmers’ issues that are of great public interest.”
The SC had on January 12 constituted the committee to listen to the grievances of the farmers relating to the farm laws and views of the government, and to make recommendations. The panel had then on March 19 submitted its report to the apex court. The report has, however, not yet been made public.
Ghanwat, in his letter, emphasised the needs for reforms, saying while the specific laws may no longer exist, the “reform impulse that was reflected in these laws is not diluted”.
“Many of India’s farmers are desperate for renewed, not less, focus on reforms – particularly market freedom and technology freedom. These laws were accepted in principle by our farmers movement but were not accepted entirely by the farmers because the policy process of the Indian government is not consultative,” he said.