The Centre insists that it has no such plan and that private agricultural markets will complement the APMC system, not replace it. On September 21, the cabinet committee on economic affairs approved MSP hikes for six rabi crops, just 45 days before the sowing season was to begin. Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar also assured the Lok Sabha that agencies like the FCI (Food Corporation of India) and NAFED would continue to procure stocks from mandis at MSP prices.

Farmer groups point out that the new laws do not require prices for sales to private parties to be linked to MSP. Without this protection, critics of the new laws point out, farmers with smaller landholdings will be vulnerable in price negotiations with corporates. This is a problem: in Punjab and Haryana, around 72 per cent and 67 per cent of farmers have less than 5 acres of land. The issue has drawn together unlikely allies, even RSS affiliates like the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) are protesting the new law. “We want MSPs to be [part of] the law. We are not against reforms, but farmers must get fair payment for their produce,” says Badri Narayan Chaudhary of the BKS.

The protests have already drawn political blood. Two days before Parliament’s monsoon session began, agitations by Punjab farmers forced BJP ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to publicly oppose the bills. Just days later, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the SAD’s Union cabinet minister and wife of party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, resigned her post in protest. Sources say BJP leaders hope to resume conversations with farmer groups after the harvest and marketing season for the rabi crop begins in early October.