President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Bill that completes the process of repealing the three contentious farm laws. The Law Ministry, on late Wednesday, notified The Farm Laws Repeal Law, 2021, which negates all the farm laws passed by Parliament last year.
Amid protests from Opposition parties, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill without any discussion on the first day of the winter session on Monday.
On November 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address to the nation, announced that the government would repeal the laws as it couldn’t convince a section of farmers on the merits of the new farm laws.
Opposition charge
However, the Opposition parties, including the Congress, accused the government of repealing the laws only because of the impending Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh early next year.
Questioning the manner in which the laws were repealed, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said the government knew that it had “done something wrong and was terrified of having a discussion in Parliament”.
Since November last year, repeal of the three farm laws was among the key demands of the farmers’ unions that have been protesting on the border of Delhi for over a year now.
The three laws are The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act; The Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act.
