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Sugar protest forces Indian parliament to shut

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: Thousands of farmers laid siege to the Indian capital on the opening day of the month-long parliament session on Thursday in protest against low state-controlled sugarcane prices.

The issue is becoming a huge political problem for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has now called an all-party meeting. Opposition parties also supported the farmers’ protest, paralysing both houses of parliament and forcing adjournment. Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, son of former prime minister late Chaudhary Charan Singh, spearheaded the farmers’ ‘Parliament Gherao’ protest to demand a minimum price of Rs 280 a quintal. All Delhi roads were jammed by the farmers coming in droves since early morning, mostly from the neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh.

All opposition parties – left, centre and right – threatened that they would continue disrupting the parliament’s function until the farmers’ demand was met. This forced the government to offer talks to revise the price. Even Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam, a partner in the UPA government, joined the protests in the Lok Sabha. Through an October 29 amendment in the Sugar (Control) Order that empowers it to fix minimum support price, the government had declared Rs 129.84 a quintal as a “Fair and Remunerative Price” applicable uniformly across the country. Levy price at which the government buys one-fifth of the sugar production to support the public distribution system (PDS) will be based on this sugarcane price, as per an ordinance issued to amend the Essential Commodities Act of 1955, and not on the prices the state governments fix or the sugar mills pay. BJP President Rajnath Singh wanted the whole issue discussed through an adjournment notice he gave in the Lok Sabha, but rest of the opposition hijacked his plan.

The prime minister was closeted with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram to discuss the parliament impasse on the issue that may derail the government’s massive legislative plan if the two Houses are paralysed day after day as threatened by almost all the opposition leaders in interview to TV news channels. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who unsuccessfully tried to make the Uttar Pradesh mills start crushing by brokering a price of Rs 180 a quintal on November 10, said he would again talk to the mill owners who had then refused the growers’ demand of Rs 215 a quintal.

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