The 2020 Farmers' Protest is an ongoing movement in India against the three farme bills passed in the session of Parliament in September 2020. The three laws passed are as follows:
- This will enable the farmers to sell their farm produces outside the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs). Any trader with license can buy the necessary commondities from the farmers directly under a mutually set price. This sale would be free from the mandi tax imposed by the state government.
- This will allow farmers to engage in contract farming and market their produces freely.
- As the name suggests, it is an amendment to an existing act by the same name. This amendmend frees items such as foodgrains, pulses, edible oils and onion for trade except in crises.
Introduction of these laws in the system, removes the concept of MSP in the case of trade outside of APMC, which made the farmers conclude that majority of the government agencies might involve in trade outside of APMC and end up buying the produce at comparatively lesser prices than the actual value. As the APMC is the only constant source of revenue in the farmers' lives , implementation of these laws without reconsideration of farmers' demands and needs may lead to huge losses for them.
- Convene a special Parliament session to repeal the farm laws
- Make minimum support price (MSP) and state procurement of crops a legal right
- Assurances that conventional procurement system will remain
- Implement Swaminathan Panel Report and peg MSP at least 50% more than weighted average cost of production
- Cut diesel prices for agricultural use by 50%
- Repeal of Commission on Air Quality Management in NCR and the adjoining Ordinance 2020 and removal of punishment and fine for stubble burning
- Release of farmers arrested for burning paddy stubble in Punjab
- Abolishing the Electricity Ordinance 2020
- Centre should not interfere in state subjects, decentralization in practice
- Withdrawal of all cases against and release of farmer leaders
- Written assurance for provision of MSP
- Taking Back FIRs and Cases Against Farmer Leaders
- Decriminalising stubble burning by excluding farmers from the ambit of the act and drop provision of the draft of Electricity Amendment Bill 2020
still opposed to demands like the cutting of diesel prices for agriculutural use , as there is no way of knowing for sure whether the purchase of diesel by a customer would be for agricultural purposes
Twitter is a data mine. We went through thousands of tweets to analyse the sentiments and further apprehend why were certain people for the bills and why certain against them.
Topping the list is Delhi. Supporting/Opposing the laws from abroad are our well wishers in Ontario.
We can understand from the above graph that public sentiment on the overall is **against the bills**, with a special peak on 18th December 2020. This peak is due to the combination PM Modi's video conference to the farmers ,the Union Agricultural Minister Narender Singh Tomar's open letter to the farmers and CM Arvind Kejriwal's tearing of the bills in the Parliament on 17th December 2020 . On this day , the PM assured the farmers that MSP will not be scrapped and pleaded them to believe that the farm laws were for their own good. He also blamed the opposition for spreading lies about the bills.
Let's further implore the reason behind these sentiments.
On studying the word cloud , the following conclusions were drawn for people for the bill:
- That the laws should be supported
- There are talks amongst them for the influence of cartels in mandis
- The farmers are being influenced by the opposition parties
On studying the word cloud, the following conclusions were drawn for people against the bill:
- Implementing these laws would insure the existence of cartels outside of APMC
- The highest prices would be set by the cartels and not by the farmers
- The government isn't corporating with the farmers
- Analysis : Tarushi Pathak ,Kabir Nagpal
- Words : Tarushi Pathak