Manas Dasgupta
MUMBAI, Sep 30: Under pressure from its coalition partners, the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government has withdrawn its August 10 order directing the farm sector to implement the contentious farm reform laws opposed by several non-BJP political parties and farmers’ organisations.
The order withdrawing the August 10 directive issued by the state government Director of Marketing Satish Soni for “strict implementation” of the farm laws was issued on Wednesday.
When the directive was issued on August 10 making Maharashtra the first state government in the country in taking the initial step towards implementing the “farm reforms,” the measures were still ordinances which became laws after the contentious bills were passed by the Lok Sabha and later by the Rajya Sabha amidst uproarious scenes last week. The president Ram Nath Kovind gave his consent to the bills on Tuesday.
The order rescinding the August 10 notification was issued after the Congress, which along with the Nationalist Congress Party are the coalition partners of the Sena in the MVA government, threatened to boycott the cabinet meeting scheduled later in the day.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led government was already in a dilemma over the implementation of the agriculture reform laws after the Congress and the NCP opposed the farm laws calling them “anti-farmer”.
Last week, deputy Maharashtra chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar had announced that the state government would not implement in the state the agriculture reform laws permitting the farmers to sell their produces to any buyer they wished. Many political parties and the farmers; organisations have expressed the apprehension that the measures would encourage “corporate farming” and the farmers would stand a loser if the centre progressively stopped the current system of declaring minimum support price. Many opposition parties led by the Congress and several farmers’ groups all across India have been carrying out protests against the laws.
On Monday, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had advised the states ruled by the party to inspect all possibilities of legislation under the Constitution’s Article 254(2) to negate the “anti-agricultural laws” and to prevent the “grave injustices” being done to farmers.
Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat had earlier claimed that all the three ruling partners had opposed the bills. The parties were to discuss the issue at the cabinet meeting.