In a warrant issued Tuesday, the court said the decision to suspend the laws could “soften the hurt feelings of farmers and encourage them to come to the negotiating table with confidence and good faith.”
The laws were first passed in September. For decades, the Indian government has offered farmers guaranteed prices for certain crops, providing them with long-term certainty to make investments for the next crop cycle. The new laws, initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, instead allowed farmers to sell their goods to anyone at any price – giving them more freedom to do things like sell directly to buyers and sell to other states.
But farmers argued that the new rules would make them worse by making it easier for companies to exploit farm workers, and by helping big companies to keep prices down. In contrast, while farmers can sell crops at higher prices when the demand is there, they can struggle to meet the minimum price in years when there is too much supply in the market.
More than 100,000 people have been protesting the laws since late November.
There have been long days along each of New Delhi’s three borders. Farmers have blocked roads and set up makeshift camps, some sleeping on the road or in their tractor. They came from different states to participate in the massive protests, sometimes clashing with the police.
All the while, the government has held eight rounds of talks with leaders of more than 30 peasant unions who oppose the laws – but the talks didn’t end anywhere.
The stalemate prompted the Supreme Court to suspend the laws on Tuesday and order the formation of a four-member mediation committee to help the parties negotiate in a “sympathetic atmosphere.” The Conciliation Committee must meet within 10 days and by order, submit its first report within two months of that meeting.
The court also said on Tuesday that minimum aid price protections would be maintained until further orders – one of the main areas of friction between the government and farmers. According to the court order, “no farmer will be expropriated or deprived of his title as a result of any action taken under the Farm Laws”.
However, the umbrella group representing the farmers’ unions, Samyukt Kisan Morcha, has repeatedly said it would not participate in any court-appointed mediation – and reiterated this point after the new order was issued.
“This is the anger of the government that they want to ease the pressure off their shoulders, so they have asked for this Supreme Court committee, which we are against,” farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said at a news conference on Tuesday, adding that the committee members are all pro-government.
The attorney general representing the government in the case also criticized the Supreme Court order, saying they were “strongly opposed” to any interim stay.
The laws were so controversial because agriculture is the main source of income for about 58% of India’s 1.3 billion population, and farmers have been advocating for an increase in minimum guaranteed prices for years. They are the largest electoral bloc in the country, making agriculture a central political issue.