The government has received support to go ahead with the present agri-bills by eminent economists like Surjit Bhalla, the Executive Director of IMF. According to Bhalla, the protests are misled primarily by the wealthy farmers of Haryana and Punjab.
He further mentioned that the laws have the support of several economists, barring a few insignificant ones. "They might have political goals, I can't answer for them. But there are several economists like Swaminathan Aiyar and myself, who support the passed agri-bills," said Bhalla in an online interview.
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This comes as PM Modi assured the farmers that the new reforms in the agrarian sector are aimed at helping them. Even Union Minister, Piyush Goyal said that the government is 24X7 ready to hear and clear the doubts of the farmers on the new reforms. However, despite multiple attempts, the government is going all-out in its attempt to establish a relationship of trust with the farmers as the demonstrations at Delhi border are only intensifying.
In other news, The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in her recent statement alleged the farmers' protest to have been hijacked by anti-national elements; asking for fulfilment of demands that are not even closely the current farmers' protest or agriculture altogether.
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"We have not stopped talking with them. They are welcome to sit and talk as farmers. The kinds of demands getting latched on to this protest and also the letter gone to the negotiating ministers is now adding on issues which have nothing to do with agriculture or the farm laws."
She said that the government is willing to talk to the farmers on the ongoing stand-off over agri-reforms, and overtly accused the opposition parties of using the protests as their stage to make political gains.
She mentioned the point of farmers not being clear of what their demand is a clear sign of misuse of their trust and hijacking of the protest by anti-nationalists to recover the lost ground.