 After seven long weeks of protests by farmers, the Supreme Court has intervened, and it has put a stay on Modi government's new farm laws. It has stated it cannot be implemented till the Supreme Court gives further clearance. Now, you would imagine that farmers should be extremely happy about it, right? Because in a sense, it is a victory. Now, which protester thinks that all their demands are going to be accepted? This is almost as good as a temporary victory that they could have got. But no, farmers are extremely disappointed. In fact, they have said they're not going to accept this interim order by the Supreme Court. Why? It seems almost inexplicable, right? We will explain this to you in the easiest terms in this new episode of News Made Easy. Stay tuned. So, Supreme Court was basically hearing three kinds of petitions. The first were from farmers' bodies, which were opposing these farm laws. They said that these are unconstitutional laws. They need to be struck down. There were those who support these laws. And in them, there are some farmer's bodies as well who support the laws. They wanted their voice to be heard, and they came out in support of the law, backing the law in the Supreme Court. And then there was a third batch of petitioners who were essentially residents of Delhi and adjoining areas who said that the farmers' protests have completely blocked the highways and it is causing them problems, so the Supreme Court needs to intervene and send them home, remove this blockade. Now, the Supreme Court effectively has said the following things. Number one, and that's the big one, at least in terms of headlines, the big one is that it has stayed Modi government's new farm laws and said that they cannot be implemented till further notice. Number two, which is related to the farm laws itself, it has said that farmers want minimum support price and although the government has assured that minimum support price will continue even under the new laws, the government cannot stop giving MSP till these laws are implemented. So, MSP continues for the time being. Third, another important thing for farmers. Small farmers have been worried that these new laws will open up the space for big agri giants to come in and basically evict them, take over the land through contract farming or whatever this law allows, take over the land, evict them and change land rights and we'll have these big mega-corporatized farmers out there and small farmers will essentially be evicted for the land and turned into agricultural laborers. So, the Supreme Court said till further notice any change in land rights which can be caused by these laws will not be recognized. So, the farmers' land rights, farmers' titles to these land will have to be protected. Looks like three big victories for the farmers. Okay, the Supreme Court has also said that there's been a complete impasse between the government and farmers' bodies. The talks have failed, something has to be done. So, we will set up a committee of agricultural experts who will act as negotiators, as go-betweens. They will listen to the farmers, hear their grievances, take it to the government, listen to what the government has to say and hopefully the air of distrust there is out there, that will get dissipated and the committee will come up with something, some recommendations which will make both sides happy. Finally, the Supreme Court has said that farmers' bodies need to take this interim order as an achievement of their goals, at least for the time being because their protests were for this and they've achieved a part of it. It is now time for them to go back to their lives, not risk their health which they can in this cold and with COVID around and also not blockade and cause problems to other people. So effectively, the last point in the order is essentially asking farmers to suspend their protests and go back to their lives because they've more or less achieved what they wanted to do. Now on the face of it, it looks like a big victory for the farmers, right? Because after all, this is what they were trying to achieve. Repeal the law and the government had repeatedly said there is no question of going back on these laws, they're going to be implemented. There might be a few amendments here and there. The Supreme Court has effectively stated. So in a sense, it's a victory for farmers because the Supreme Court didn't say, okay, we are hearing your petition but till then, the law continues, we might repeal it at some later day. As of now, it has been stopped. What has disappointed farmers is the third thing in this entire point which is the panel, the constitution of that panel. Number one, the farmers want to speak to those who are the decision makers in the government, which is the government itself, the agriculture minister, the prime minister probably, they want to talk to them and explain and say that you need to get rid of these laws because they're not good for us. Now, what has the Supreme Court offered them? The Supreme Court has offered them a panel of agricultural experts who really have no local standard. The only thing they can do is recommend to the Supreme Court or take a report to the Supreme Court saying this is what farmers are saying, this is what the government is saying, now it is for you to decide because ultimately the Supreme Court has to decide it on the basis of the constitution because it cannot really make any decisions or policy matters. The reason why farmers are even more agitated is because of the people who are in that committee. The four names in that committee which are up here on your screen, each one of them has in the past in the public domain said that they support these laws. They've even called the farmers' protests misguided. They've even said that these farm laws are absolutely essential, they should not be repealed. So effectively this entire body is for the laws. This entire body is on the side of the government on these laws. So you'll understand why farmers would be skeptical about talking to them because if the Supreme Court is going to rely on a report by these four people then farmers would have a legitimate worry that that report is going to be skewed to in favor of these laws, in favor of so-called market reforms which these laws want to push. Now it is possible that these panellists are going to be completely objective, not let their views enter into the thing at all and only act as negotiators, go between, between two sides. In fact one of them has said that I might have supported these laws but I'm not going to let down the farmers of India or the Supreme Court. But in terms of optics, in terms of how it looks, a panel made of pro-law experts does not look good to farmers. That is understandable. And then comes the last point of protests. The farmers feel that effectively the Supreme Court's interim order is giving a legitimate grant for the government to say, we look, all this has now been done, now we go back, we'll see what happens in two months from now. We'll see when that report comes in, you talk to them and then we'll see effectively suspending a momentum which is already built up. This is a momentum which is built up which no one's been able to ignore. Even the mainstream media which has repeatedly been acting as a spokesperson of the government has not been able to ignore the farmers movement. So that is why farmers are skeptical about this order. Whatever the intentions of the Supreme Court might be, the Supreme Court wants to a solution here but farmers think that solution doesn't work for them. On the other hand, if you look at news reports, you'll see that the government is not displeased with the fact that the laws have been suspended for the time being because effectively it gives them a way out, a face saver because what does the government do? The government essentially says, well, we didn't stop the laws, the Supreme Court did, we can't do anything about it, we are going to challenge it but we didn't stop it but it also gives them the chance to say, look, now let's have a breather here. There is a process going on in the Supreme Court, we don't want to intervene, it is subjudice and therefore everything needs to stop right here. Farmers that is why are not willing to accept that the Supreme Court has to say farmers are many of them. The bigger unions are saying we are not going to talk to the panel but there are some smaller unions which might talk to the panel. That kind of puts a question mark over this panel itself whether it is worth anything if most of the farmers who are protesting are not going to talk to them at all. That's our second episode of News Made Easy. Stay tuned and keep watching News Click. Do watch our videos, like them, share them and don't forget to subscribe to our channel.