SKM leaders question composition of MSP panel, may give it a miss

Farmers' grouping has also been roiled by factional disputes since year-long agitation was called off

The three slots that the Centre has kept vacant for the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) in the high-powered panel formed to make the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism more effective and transparent are unlikely to be filled by the farm grouping. The reasons behind this are reservations over the composition of the 29-member committee and differences within the grouping.

The vacant slots will be filled when the SKM, which spearheaded the year-long protest against the three farm laws the Centre introduced in 2020, sends the names.

Prominent voices in the SKM have questioned the committee’s composition and its terms of reference, alleging that it violates one basic assurance of the government — looking into the modalities of making MSP a legal right.

“Today, we held a meeting of non-political leaders of the Sam­yukta Kisan Morcha. All leaders rejected the government’s panel. The government has inducted so-called farmer leaders in the panel, who didn’t have anything to do with our agitation, against the three farm laws at the Delhi borders,” farmer leader Abhi­m­anyu Kohar told PTI. He alleged the government has also made some corporate executives members of the panel.

Farmer leader Darshan Pal betrayed a lack of belief in the committee, saying its terms and references aren’t clear. Farmer leaders from Punjab and Hary­ana also rejected the panel.

That apart, Yogendra Yadav, a prominent leader of the agitation, questioned the credentials of some of the non-SKM farmers’ representatives roped in by the government for the panel in a lengthy note on Monday. He said the five such representatives were strong advocates of the repealed laws and loyalists of the government. They, Yadav said, have been either directly linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or have supported their policies.

The other farmers’ representatives picked for the panel are Gunwant Patil, Krishan Bir Choudhury, Pramod Kumar Chaudhary, Guni Prakash and Sayyed Pasha Patel.

Yadav said Choudhury had been part of the Bhartiya Krishak Samaj and recently joined the BJP; Chaudhury is a member of the national working committee of the RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS); Patel has been a BJP MLC from Mahara­shtra; and Patil has been linked with Shetkari Sangathana and is a votary of the World Trade Organization. Meanw­­­­­­­­­­­hile, Pra­kash is the Haryana unit president of a faction of the Bharti­­­ya Kisan Union that is known for its favourable views on the Acts.

Yadav also said the chairman of the committee, former agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal, had framed the three laws and was a strong advocate of them; as was NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand who drafted the laws.

The SKM has been a divided house and the consensus that existed on several issues during the agitation is no longer present. At one point, it boasted a conglomeration of over 300 farmers’ groups.

However, differences have cropped up after the repeal of the Acts and the end of the agitation on whether members should join active politics.

A section of the SKM, largely composed of groups from Punjab (the biggest in terms of manpower and resources), moved out when some from this faction — composed of members Gurnam Singh Chaduni and fronts like BKU (Rajewal) — contested the Assembly polls.

A few days ago, the organisation split again with two core committee members of the SKM — Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Shivkumar Sharma “Kakkaji” — holding a convention of about 30 farmers’ organisations.

The duo claimed their effort was to “depoliticise” the SKM and announced a parallel group in response to the former’s call for protests against the Centre from July 18. Kakkaji is a former leader of BKS, while Dallewal is president of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta-Sidhupur.

The new grouping is reported to have targeted the left-leaning All India Kisan Sabha (which has been part of the SKM) and said farmers’ groups should not have any political affiliations.

The duo has also reportedly been opposed to allowing the Punjab-based outfits that split ahead of the state polls to rejoin.

Even within Rakesh Tikait’s Bhartiya Kisan Union, which led the agitation at Delhi’s borders with Uttar Pradesh, a splinter section is calling itself the BKU (apolitical).