Farmers protest against three new rules.

Various unions of farmers are protesting against the Farmers' Produce Trad and Commerce Ordinance, 2020, the Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, and the Essential Commodities Ordinance, 2020.

Farmers part of the All India Kesan Sangharsh, Rashtriya Kisan Mahasang, and Bhartiya Kisan Union. These various representative agents (trade unions) and their members (the farmers) have collectively protested against three new ordinances in the capital. Ordinances are rules, laws, regulations or an authoritative order. They are going against three bills mentioned above which were introduced to the parliament in September.

The government believes that these new bills are making production and its processes more manageable for the farmers. The bills allow the farmers to directly sell their crops to private buyers and be directly involved in contracts made in the private sector. Previous laws limited the farmers to sell the goods through an intermediary or to the local market. The bills will allow the farmers to sell outside of "sabzi-mandi", state, and region without paying any taxes or fees.

The farmers have perceived this freedom to be the elimination of the sabzi-mandi. This news to the farmers has been one of the reasons to strike up the protest. Other farmers are protesting to protect MSP, minimum support prices (it is a price floor), which they believe is being threatened by the new laws. The MSP rates are the rates at which the Centre purchases the crop regardless of the market rates.

Over time the Modi government has been in charge the MSP saw a sharp decline in the first year of the PM's first term. Ever since the MSP price was gradually increasing- however, after the new bills, the MSP has for the first time in half a decade decreased. This move has scared the farmers into believing that the MSP will be withdrawn and corporate players will be able to dominate the market.

This becomes an issue due to the inflation caused by changes in the consumer spending patterns as a result of the pandemic. The farmers were afraid that the dropping MSP would reduce their chances of selling the goods at healthy prices. They also believed they would be helpless when dealing with private firms if the MSP is skimmed further. However, PM Modi has come out and stated that all the news floating about the MSP and elimination of the mandi are rumours. The Prime Minister said so after sharply raising the MSP for six crops. Now, PM Modi has assured that the mandi will live and the MSP maintained.

*The chronological order may be incorrect, however, many sources do showcase a sharp decline in the MSP before the rights and a sharp increase in them after the first wave.*

PM Modi also provides clarification by saying that they never eliminated the mandi, they have just removed any laws which limit farmers to selling their products in the mandi, which makes the importance of the mandi drop. The protests are speculated to be a result of the reduced State government control. The new rules have taken away the power of the state government to control the mandi or tax the farmers when they attempt to trade. This reduced control means that a large chunk of the tax revenue generated through the agricultural trade now is no longer for the state.

Furthermore, the intermediaries/agents which dealt with the farmers and the private sector firms have also come under fire as they will now not be in control of the crops due to the freedom of the free market.

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*There is a lot of real news and a lot of speculation, but I am trying my best to bring out the most reliable information. If you find anything opposing the points made above please let me know*