Farm Bills: Top Academicians of India Support New Agricultural Laws

Top academicians from across India’s leading science and management institutes have recently come out in ‘support’ of the controversial new agriculture and farm law which has been facing intensifying protest from farmers nationwide and mainly from Punjab based farmers.

As per reports, a letter dated December 14 was written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi which has received consent from 50 professors in science and management institutions. A few professors who spoke to Business Line confirmed the letter and showed emails as proof of their consent. Those who have consented includes professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai, Indian Association for Cultivation of Science, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi.

The act gives complete autonomy to the farmers to trade their products where they want and with whoever they want, say experts.

As per sources, at IIT Madras those who have consented to the letter include senior professors from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Physics and Department of Civil Engineering among others.

These Academicians Show Their Support

On the other hand, academicians and professors from a few other institutions, University of Mumbai (department of Zoology), Central University of Jharkhand, University of Allahabad (Department of Political Science), IIT Roorkee, Former Head and Emeritus Scientist Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), ICAR Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), West Bengal, CHM College Ulhasnagar, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) Mumbai, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Hislop College Nagpur, Dayanand Science College Latur, Vijan Bharati Konkan Prant, University of Delhi and UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research Mumbai.

“We, from the academic world across leading institutes and Universities would like to assure our support to the three farm Acts passed by the Government of India. We discussed with our colleagues who are experts in this field and based on our discussion we feel this moment should not be missed. This is a golden opportunity for reforms which has been eluding agriculture since the industrial reforms in 1991. We are convinced that the moment has arrived for agriculture and if these reforms are missed, agriculture will have no future in India,” the letter said.