No information on pre-legislative consultation on farm laws, says Agriculture Ministry in RTI reply

The Chief Public Information Officer said that the officer "does not hold any record in this matter"

RTI queries seeking details of pre-legislative consultations on the three contentious farm laws have drawn a blank with the information officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare indicating that they do not have any information about such an exercise.

Transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj had last month sought details on the dates of consultations prior to the promulgation of the ordinances in June 2020, minutes of all such consultations, list of experts, farmers' groups, the people who attended and the comments of states with which the Ministry had held discussions.

In a separate RTI, Bhardwaj had also sought details on whether the proposed legislations were made available to the public prior to issuance of the ordinance. Three months after the ordinances were promulgated, the Parliament had passed the Bills in September 2020.

Read: On Lohri, protesting farmers to burn copies of new farm laws

The response to both the RTIs were identical.

The Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Marketing Cell in the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers' Welfare said that the officer "does not hold any record in this matter".

The CPIO in the Marketing Section-I said, "I am the CPIO in respect of Marketing-I dealing with the administrative work of the Agricultural Marketing Division...The information sought by you does not pertain to the Marketing Section." The CPIO disposed of the query saying that the "information sought is treated as nil" and forwarded it to CPIO of Marketing Section-II.

Also read: Farmers reject Supreme Court panel; stick to repeal of farm laws

According to a decision taken in the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries on 10 January, 2014 regarding the Pre-legislative Consultation Policy, every department and ministry is required to proactively place in the public domain all proposed legislations for a minimum period of 30 days.

The Central Information Commission has also directed the government in 7 July, 2010 that a credible mechanism must be put in place for proactive and timely disclosure of draft legislations in the public domain as required under Section 4(1)(c) of the Right to Information Act, during the process of their formulation and before finalisation.

Commenting on the RTI replies, senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that it showed how the government was distorting the process.

He referred to an affidavit submitted by the Narendra Modi government in Supreme Court “for the purpose of dispelling the erroneous notion that the protestors have peddled the Central Government and the Parliament never had any consultative process or examination of issues by any Committee before passing of the laws in question”.

He said the affidavit made some reference to setting up Guru Committee in December 2000, report of empowered committee of state ministers in 2013, working group on agricultural production in 2010 and circulation of draft Model Act of 2017. He added that the Centre then went on to say that it actively and intensively consulted with the states for about two decades.

"It is thus clear that there are serious attempts at prevarication, distortion, misrepresentation and misleading of the nation, the apex court and all relevant stakeholders, apart from indulging in blatantly contumacious conduct. Not even perfunctory, much less any meaningful pre-legislative consultation was attempted, much less done by the Modi government," Singhvi said.

He alleged that the government has attempted to fool all the people of India all the time by practicing 'falsehoods' on stilts. "Unfortunately, they have not even spared the Supreme Court," he said.