Venerable VC sir, Pro-VC Sir, Deputy Pro-VC sir, panel of jury, all the dignitaries,

intellectual audience and of course, my worthy opponents. I, Varshneya Agarwal,

am privileged to vocalize my views on the issue “Farm laws should not be
repealed” which I fail to fathom and hence I plant myself firmly against the
motion.

Friends, there is a huge need to realize the harsh and bitter truth, that the economy
is badly stumbled, the service sector is destroyed, industrial production is going in
negative and the government treasury is empty to worsen the situation. But the
government needs revenue to run the country, which it is trying to generate by
letting the big corporates and industries hijack the agricultural economy using the
parallel market in the name of “open market” and by legalizing hoarding but let us
not forget the fact affirmed by Dr M.S. Swaminathan that if agriculture goes
wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right ever again.
At the very outset, we observe the systematic and cunning exploitation of the
loopholes in our parliamentary system to convert the ordinances into laws. A
question to masses, was there any emergency to enact these laws? This endeavor of
the government seals the already fermenting doubt that the laws do not truly
consider the advantages of farmers and the consumers. On the contrary, it secretly
hides the shoulder-to-shoulder pact between the government and pro-crony
capitalism.

Having said this, let us systematically debunk the theoretically germinated

flowery mirage, act by act, spawned by the superficially true “pseudo-fake-
believers", my dear opponents who have a great myth that these acts mean,
kisaan kaanoon aa gaye, matlab acche din aa gaye! and are fascinated that bichara
BPL kisaan will become IPL Ambani/Adani!! But they forget that these acts are
idyllic in idealistic world only and we simply do not thrive in an idealistic world!

The first act, “Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation)
Act, 2020”, delivers a devastating blow which merely creates a colossal crater in
the heart of farmers as it eradicates APMCs and consequently, MSP, the safety net
of farmers, which is not explicitly written in the law but is implicit in its design.
Let me tell you how. 86% of all agricultural landholdings in India are small and
marginal. These farmers need to sell their crops as quickly as possible because they
need to prepare crops for another season. So, they’ll flock towards the tax-free
private markets instead of the 6% tax charging APMCs, pushing them at the verge
of extinction.
Also, the ripple effect of the mandis dying out would mean that hundreds of
thousands of middlemen, who are just service providers to farmers, and not the
exploiters, will face the grim fate of losing their only source of daily income along
with the accountants, additional laborers and support staff.

In the “Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance

and Farm Services Act, 2020”,
1. I would like to ask my commendable comrade, who has very eloquently
enunciated the merits of this act, do you really think that there can be an
equal fight between the cunning corporates and feeble farmers when no floor
price is mandated for the farmers to instigate negotiations? The answer is a
huge “NO”. Why? It is because the business houses can effortlessly exploit
to manipulate the price in the contracts by exhibiting cartelization, which is
the coalition of private firms to fix price and dominate the market.
2. Another burning question is, can we afford to overlook this glaring fact is
that the poor farmers will fall into the vicious circle of subservient poverty
as they will be sidelined by the big farmers?
3. Besides these mammoth roadblocks, in the case of disputes, the farmers do
not have access to the tribunal system as it is to be resolved at the SDM
level, which again turns into the disadvantage of farmers. In this very
situation, the fabulously wealthy industrialists and corrupt bureaucrats only
add fuel to fire.

Now, moving on to the most controversial act, “The Essential Commodities

(Amendment) Act, 2020”, where the government gives the hoarding rights of
essential commodities to the corporates for the supposed “mass production”,
which in its bleak reality, is a scheme that legally enables these big companies to
loot the customers by creating a ‘cascading effect’, in which the goods become
pricier for both farmers and consumers because of artificial demands. My friends,
this only indicates that we sometimes do reform as a fire but forget the missile we
shot and think all is done without the coherence of real and overall vision.

At last, I assure you my intellectual audience that the implementation of these acts
threatens to tear the fragile fabric of these so-called “reforms” and three situations
will emerge in the long term:
1. 59% of the workforce, the country’s farmer, will become enslaved to the
sweet will of the corporates and become mindless and starving producers.
2. Hoarding will get legalized, allowing ample opportunity to loot the
consumers out in the open.
3. The weakening of the government markets will lead to the cancellation of
MSP in the future.
Thus, it can be firmly concluded that farm laws are nothing more than sending a
diabetic patient for treatment in a sugar factory.
Please think over it.
Thank you.
Wish you a Magnificent Monday ahead.