The “Mandi Dalal” protests are raging for more than 10 months. With the money looted by the Mandi Dalal ecosystem going down, the ferocity of the protests are also going down.

In this article, we will discuss about the truth behind the various myths being spread by Mandi Dalal leaders.

  1. Myth1: The entire farming sector will be taken over by corporates: Currently as per various state APMC acts, the farmers can sell their produce only in the Mandis to the Dalals who have a license from the Govt, thereby giving the Dalals virtual monopoly and they have used the monopoly to exploit farmers. The “The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020” allows any one having a PAN card to purchase the farm produce. It takes Rs. 150/- to get a PAN card. Any person of India having Rs 150/- in his/her pocket can enter the “procuring business”. Had Govt. say put a condition that the Person/Company should have a net worth of say Rs 100 crores, we could have said that the Laws are pro-corporate. The law will essentially result to competition among parties to purchase from farmers and the farmer will get better price for his/her produce due to elimination of monopolies.
  2. Myth 2: Farmers’ land will go away: The “The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020” allows contract farming. The law makes it very clear that the contract have nothing to do with the land title. The contract period shall range from 1 crop cycle(which is typically 4-6 months) to a maximum of 5 years. Once the contract period is over, all infrastructure build on farmers’ land(by the contractor) will belong to the farmer.
  3. Myth 3: Minimum Support Price (MSP) will go away: All the 3 laws say nothing on MSP. The Govt is promising that it will keep the MSP regime. The Govt. was also willing to give a written affidavit before the Supreme Court that MSP regime is going to stay for ever. So MSP is the not the real reason, the elimination of monopolies is the reason behind the protests.
  4. Myth 4 : Hoarding will increase: Why does hoarding occur today? The reason is simple: the Dalals who are allowed to procure from farmers have monopolies, and have formed cartels among themselves. The Mandi Dalal ecosystem know that if they hoard, they have no competitor who will release food grains to market. But once the procurement market becomes open for all, they cannot hoard. If they hoard, then some other player can release his/her stock to market and bring down prices. In reality hoarding will decrease due to the laws. We will see investment in agricultural infrastructure like cold storages which will result to reduction in wastage. Today, 35% of vegetables rot due to lack of agricultural infrastructure.
  5. Myth 5: Mandis will vanish: The Mandis today have become places of loot where the farmers are ruthlessly exploited by the Dalals. With the famer getting choice to sell to any one (even from his/her field), the monopoly of the Mandis will go away. The Dalals cannot dictate their terms to the farmers. The farmer today brings his/her produce to Mandis, the Dalals form cartels among themselves force the farmers to sell the grains to them and take the benefit of the MSP giving farmers little. With farmers allowed to sell outside Mandis, the farmers will get more money from their produce. The Mandi Dalals (Arthiyas) have become money lenders and are keeping farmers under their thumb. With the new laws the farmers will get out of their sinister clutches. Just think of one point: The laws doesn’t stop the farmers from selling at Mandis. The Dalals asking the govt to stop the farmers outside is itself an evidence that Dalals are exploiting the famers.

It is important that every one understand the truth behind the farm laws and how the Dalal/Black Marketer ecosystem is playing a evil and sinister role.

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