oppn parties Government And Farm Bodies Must Now Together Bring In Reforms

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
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  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Government And Farm Bodies Must Now Together Bring In Reforms

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-11-19 07:37:35

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The decision of the government to initiate the process to repeal all three new farm laws is welcome for two reasons. The first is the manner in which the laws were rushed through and the second is the long stand-off with no breakthrough in sight, despite the intervention of the Supreme Court. With Prime Minister Modi signaling the government's intent to repeal the laws, the stalemate will hopefully end. The Prime Minister has indicated that the government will now hold wide consultations with states, farmers' bodies and experts before drafting new laws to reform the agriculture sector. Hence, farm unions should shed past animosity and misgivings and come forward to help the government.

No one should see this decision of the government as a victory or defeat. Instead, the government should learn the lesson that however good the intent be and however good the laws be, it does not pay to ignore stakeholders and a wide range of expert opinion while drafting the laws and bamboozling it through parliament without discussion, ideally by referring it to a select committee for proper vetting. Brute majority does not entitle the government to impose its views or agenda on the nation and all laws should be passed in parliament following the tradition of discussion and debate where the opposition is allowed to record its objections to contentious sections of the law.

No one denies that the agriculture sector needs to be reformed. No one (except vested interests) also denies that middlemen who deprive farmers their rightful dues and who have formed a cartel, with political patronage, to fleece them, need to be eliminated and farmers should have access to more avenues to sell their produce. But the reforms and the opening up of the market need to be discussed widely and the stakeholders must come on board for implementation. The farm unions will never agree to any law if they do not approve of it.

This was the main fight in the agitation against the new law. The farm unions resented the manner in which the laws were imposed upon them. That is why they adopted the inflexible attitude of not even discussing them clause-by-clause to eliminate or amend contentious clauses and wanted the government to repeal them in totality. All said and done, since the government has now met their demand in full, the farm unions must reciprocate and participate in the process of drafting new laws to usher in much-needed reforms in the farm sector. 

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