Sharad Pawar’s U-turn on farm laws? As Agriculture Minister, NCP chief sought similar reforms backing private sector

NCP chief Sharad Pawar is supporting the protest launched by farmers against three new farm laws passed recently by the government but when Pawar himself was Union Agriculture Minister during UPA regime he had written letters to chief ministers to amend the APMC Act in their states in order to create space for the private players to play an important role in agriculture sector.

The letters written by Pawar surfaced on Sunday (November 6) with many claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre has made the same set of changes in the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act which were backed by Pawar.

“This requires huge investments in marketing infrastructure including cold-chain. And for this, private sector participation is essential, for which an appropriate regulatory and policy environment needs to be in place,” the letter which is in possession of Zee News read, calling for amending the state APMC Act. In a letter to then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Pawar had mentioned that it is necessary to find investments to support post-harvest and marketing infrastructure from the farm gate to the consumer and said “private sector needs to play an important role in this regard”.

It may be recalled that Pawar was the union agriculture, consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister when Manmohan Singh was prime minister of India.

On Sunday (December 6), Pawar asked the Centre to resolve the deadlock with farmers as soon posible warning that the failure to do so will only spark agitation in other parts of the country.

Pawar is scheduled to meet President Ram Nath Kovind on December 9 to hold discussions over the ongoing farmers’ protest. The NCP has joined Congress and other opposition parties in supporting the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called on December 8 by farmer unions.