NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made an ardent appeal to protesters to give the new farm laws a chance even as he questioned opposition parties for their sudden “U-turn” on the need for reforms in the agriculture sector.
Participating in the debate in the Rajya Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, Modi renewed his offer for talks and said the door on negotiations had not been slammed shut but stood by the reforms, saying they were the need of the hour and could not be put off any longer. “It is indisputable that this is the right time to make agriculture profitable and we should not waste this opportunity. We need to progress, we cannot allow the country to slide and we need to give the reforms a chance to see whether they are beneficial or not,” he said.
Modi also sought to allay the worry that the reforms might spell the demise of MSP and mandis or APMCs. “MSP was there, MSP is here and MSP will remain in future,” the PM said. He pointed to the provision in the Budget for APMCs and stressed that the subsidised food scheme, run with foodgrains procured by paying MSP to farmers, would continue.

In what appeared to be a response to the demand of farmers to write MSP into law, the PM said promises made on the floor of Parliament needed to be treated as solemn commitments. “Please keep the sanctity of this floor in mind. We have been tasked with special responsibilities,” he said, adding that he was open to changing the laws if they needed to be improved and acknowledged the right of farmers to protest.
He said the current regime left out 12 crore small and marginal farmers with holdings of 1-2 acres and who accounted for 86% of the farming population, and highlighted the role dairy farmers who did not have the protection of MSP.
The overture to farmers came with a jibe at Congress for reversing its stand to oppose the very same measures which had now been implemented and an attack on what he called professional protesters and the influence of destructive ideology sourced from abroad; the “FDI” or “foreign destructive ideology”, as he put it.
“The reforms have been deliberated upon for two decades. The discussion did not start after we took office and all have felt that the time has come to implement them. True, we can differ over the details and nobody can claim that the laws will be good for all time to come. Life is dynamic but I am baffled by the U-turn,” Modi said as he quoted former PM Manmohan Singh‘s advocacy for giving farmers access to markets to prove his contention.
“We are all familiar with buddhijivis (intellectuals) and (shramjivis) but now, a new category of andolanjivis has come to the fore who feed off protests. They jump into all sorts of protests, whether it is by lawyers or students or workers. Some times they can be spotted, while on other occasions, they stay in the background. They are like parasites who feed off protests,” Modi said in what was seen as a remark aimed at some civil society activists.
The attack came in the context of what the PM called an effort to incite Sikh farmers.
On “foreign destructive ideology”, he said the country needed to be vigilant about the “destructive ideology” coming from abroad.
The Left also came under attack, with the PM recalling that they had opposed even the Green Revolution by warning of the threat of US takeover.
With farmers digging in their heels on the borders of the capital, it was only natural that the PM devoted a big chunk of his more-than-hour-long speech to the protests. It was a trademark performance, with Modi summoning his oratorial skills and lacing his forceful assertions with wit and sarcasm to reach out to farmers, especially from Punjab and the followers of former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Punjab came in for special mention, with Modi highlighting the trauma the border state underwent, both at the time of Partition and during the tumultuous days leading to Operation Blue Star and the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere. He talked about the effort to destabilise Punjab by provoking Sikhs. “This country is proud of Sikhs who have made giant contributions to the country. No honour for them can do justice to their role and the great traditions of Sikh gurus,” he said.