The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government pushed two farm bills –Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 – through the upper house of Parliament, despite a controversy about the process that was followed. While a third bill – Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 – is to be presented in the upper house, all three have been approved by the lower house of Parliament.
As a Union minister from a coalition ally resigned, opposition leaders cried foul alleging that the “government murdered Parliamentary democracy”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, said the passage of the bills was a “watershed moment” that would “liberate the farmers” from various constraints and from being “bullied by…