Former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday slammed the Centre over the passage of agricultural reform Bills in Parliament.
He stated that it challenges the pillars of the food security system of the country. Taking to Twitter, Chidambaram, in a series of tweets, said, "Two farmer-related ordinances have been approved by the Lok Sabha. Farmers of Punjab and Haryana are on the streets protesting. Captures the distance between the people and the government."
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His remarks come in the backdrop of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion And Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 being passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday.
"The two ordinances challenge the three pillars of our still-imperfect food security system. They are Minimum Support Price; public procurement; and Public Distribution System," Chidambaram expressed.
He further added that the "grave flaw" in the ordinances passed in Lok Sabha is that they don't specify that the price which the farmer gets "shall not be less than the MSP."
He expressed that the state governments were not consulted on this and that the passage of the laws "is a huge blow dealt by the BJP government to states' rights and federalism".
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The former finance minister noted that farmers in Tamil Nadu had told him "they are selling paddy at Rs 850 to private traders against an MSP (minimum support price) of Rs 1,150."
Upholding the agriculture bills, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Thursday that the Bills will bring "revolutionary changes" in the lives of farmers and boost agriculture economy. Tomar stated that the farmers' interests are "protected" under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.