Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court Constituted a four-member expert committee that would hold talks with protesting farmers with a view to resolving the crisis.
The four members announced by the court are Ashok Gulati, Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture at ICRIER; Anil Ghanwat, President, Shetkari Sanghatana, a farmers’ organisation; Bhupinder Singh Mann, President of a faction of BKU that has come out in support of laws; and P. K. Joshi, an economist.
All the four are known supporters of farm laws passed by the Modi government. Here are what they have said when the laws were passed.
Ashok Gulati
“The economic rationale of these pieces of legislation is to provide greater choice and freedom to farmers to sell their produce and to buyers to buy and store, thereby creating competition in agricultural marketing.”
Anil Ghanwat
“The government can stay implementation of the laws and amend them after discussions with farmers. However, there is no need to withdraw these laws, which have opened up opportunities for farmers.”
Bhupinder Singh Mann
“Reforms are needed in order to make agriculture competitive. But there should be safeguards.”
Pramod Joshi
“It is regrettable that the farmers’ agitation has not yet been resolved, despite the Centre’s positive response on considering genuine demands. It is also unfortunate that farmers are changing the goalposts before every negotiation.”
The choice of the four-member committee has drawn flak from several quarters and people took to social media to criticize the panel saying where are the names who hold contrary views.
No MS Swaminathan! No Sainath! No Sudha Narayanan! Can CJI please say how he chose the members of its committee to review the farm laws? Judges aren’t experts in Entire Agriculture so they must have consulted others. Please say who & when. https://t.co/IN91rTulaL via @thewire_in
— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) January 12, 2021
SC committee on farm laws.
Profile of members and their views.
Ashok Gulati had called demonetization Modi’s boldest political and economic decision.— Sandeep Singh (@PunYaab) January 12, 2021
Meanwhile, according to NDTV, former Chief Justice R.M. Lodha has declined the offer by the Supreme Court to head the committee.
