NRI’s IT Firm Was Behind Now-Repealed Farm Laws: Congress

FILE PHOTO: Farmers burn farm law copies in a bonfire as they celebrate the Lohri festival, at the site of a protest against the new farm laws, at the Delhi-UP border

On Wednesday, the opposition Congress slammed the government, alleging that it had framed the now repealed three controversial farm laws on the basis of an idea by the chief of a software firm who had nothing to do with agriculture.

In a tweet in Hindi, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that the NRI businessman had also been included in a Niti Aayog task force; she added that for the framing of the farm laws, consultations were held with corporates like the Adani Group, ITC, Patanjali and Mahindra Group. However, farmers were excluded.

Shrinate tagged a tweet by journalist Nitin Sethi; he is part of ‘Reporters’ Collective’, an independent forum of journalists, which had carried an investigative report on how the government set up a task force under the Niti Aayog, reportedly on an idea floated by an NRI businessman, in order to suggest ways to double farmers’ income. Shrinate wanted to know from the Prime Minister if this is the way policies are framed.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Sethi had tweeted, “In the name of doubling farmers’ incomes, Niti Aayog discreetly set up a task force for corporates to promote their businesses. An NRI businessman, with links to BJP, dictated terms. Part 1 of series by @reporters_co colleague @shreegireesh.”

Meanwhile, Rajiv Kumar, former vice-chairman of Niti Aayog, the government think tank, on Wednesday refused to comment on the news report by the Reporters’ Collective, which has levelled serious allegations under the government.

The Reporters’ Collective news report said that the “report has not been made public till now”, alleging that the businessman was considered close to Rajiv Kumar, the then chairman of Niti Aayog.

The two-part news report, the first part of which is titled ‘Ahead of Farm Laws, an NRI seeded Idea to Corporatise Agriculture’ came out on August 16. It alleges that NRI businessman Sharad Marathe proposed the idea of setting up a task force to implement the government’s idea of doubling the farmers’ income. Marathe apparently runs a software company and has no expertise in agriculture.

The news report further states that Marathe was later appointed in the task force; it reportedly “consulted mostly big corporations involved in agriculture commodities trade such as the Adani Group, Patanjali, Big Basket, Mahindra Group and ITC. But no farmers, economists or farmer organisations were consulted before submitting the report in 2018 to the government, whose aim was to double the income of around 60 per cent of Indians who depend on agriculture…”

The report states, “In October 2017, Sharad Marathe wrote a letter to then Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog Rajiv Kumar outlining a grand vision and concept note to revamp agriculture,” adding that “Marathe and Kumar were acquaintances, which partly explains why the letter got cherry picked from among the thousands of unlucky cold mails containing ideas and letters that land in government organisations like Niti Aayog every year”.

The report adds, “Marathe claimed he had a radical new practical solution that the government should test and rapidly scale up: stitch together land leased from farmers, make a big marketing company with government help, and create smaller companies for processing and farming. These companies work together to make and sell farming products. Farmers who lease their land can also be part of it and get a share of the profits. This helps them earn more money and makes farming better”.

“The inter-ministerial committee was set up within two months of PM Narendra Modi’s speech on doubling farmers’ income. One year and four months later, the committee began submitting a report in 14 volumes,” says the news report.