On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stoutly defended farm sector reform bills, asserting that they will act as a ‘protection shield’ for farmers and accused those opposing the measures of standing with middlemen and ‘deceiving’ and ‘lying’ peasants. With opposition parties dubbing three bills, passed by Lok Sabha and now to be tabled in Rajya Sabha, as ‘anti-farmers’ and the BJP ally Shiromani Akali Dal quitting his government to protest them. 

On Thursday, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which is the ruling BJP’s oldest ally, resigned from the Union Cabinet in protest against the bills. The Prime Minister said that the NDA government is committed to providing farmers with fair prices through Minimum Support Price. “Farmers are aware and can see who is standing with middlemen and opposing new opportunities for them. My government is committed to providing farmers with a reasonable price through MSP; the government purchase of their products will continue. No government has done as much for farmers as NDA in the last six years.” 

Lok Sabha had passed two bills on Thursday and another bill earlier with the government asserting that they will open new avenues for farmers by unshackling them from the existing mechanism and allowing them to enter into agreements with private parties to sell their produce.