Chhavi Bhatia
New Delhi : The three contentious farm laws at the heart of year-long protest by lakhs of farmers, were booted out with the Rajya Sabha passing the Farm Laws Repeal Bill 2021 on November 29 and President Ram Nath Kovind giving his assent to the Bill. Earlier, the Bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha through a voice vote. The BJP government had insisted that the new laws would bring “pro-farmers” reforms but the peasants said it would leave them at the mercy of corporates and lead to exploitation.
Amid protests from Opposition parties, both the Houses cleared the Farm Laws Repeal Bill 2021 without any debate on the first day of the winter session on November 29. The Opposition also accused the ruling government of repealing the laws ahead of upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab—farmers from these states have been at the forefront of the kisan morcha.
On the first day of the winter session, the Government had listed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 for taking back the three contentious farm laws — Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
The new laws had sparked outrage among  the farming community who said that this would ruin their livelihoods, specially farmers with small land holdings. The protest, however, remains ongoing as the farmers continue to press for Minimum Support Price(MSP), a long-standing issue amidst other demands including quashing of cases filed against them during the protest, government jobs to kin of those who lost their lives and prosecution of Ashish Mishra Teni. Bharatiya Kisan Union leader and a prominent face of the morcha, Rakesh Tikait said, “No one is leaving the protest site and it is not coming to an end anytime soon. We will sit here till all our demands are met. The government has not obliged us by repealing the laws; it is our right.”