Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen’s report calling for suspension of futures trading in sensitive agricultural commodities, including rice, wheat, tur and urad, flies in the face of stiff dissent from all the members of his committee.As first reported in The Indian Express on Monday, Sen suggested that trading be suspended despite no conclusive evidence that it contributed to inflation. His colleagues on the Futures Trading in Agri-Commodities committee who opposed this include: Kewal Ram, member, Forward Markets Commission; Prakash Apte, IIM Bangalore; Sidharth Sinha, IIM Ahmedabad and Sharad Joshi, Rajya Sabha MP and founder of farmer organisation Shetkari Sanghatan. When contacted, Apte said: “The draft report is not the final view of the committee. It is one person’s summary.” Sen has now called an urgent meeting of all members to ensure that dissent notes by a majority of them do not take away from the substance of the report. Sources also said that commodity futures market regulator FMC’s views would be strongly conveyed in the meeting tomorrow. “All four members, except Sen, do not agree with the report’s recommendations. The report should carry the majority view, and Sen can give his comments in a separate note,” said another member who too did not wish to be quoted.The original draft prepared by FMC’s Kewal Ram that analysed price behaviour before and after the ban of the four commodities had, in fact, said the futures market was giving correct price signals. “Globally, wheat prices moved up last year. The future prices conveyed a similar message,” said a member who did not wish to be named.According to the member, the draft committee report represented only Sen’s views. Said Joshi, who was working on his dissent note: “I am more concerned that the draft signals a throwback to an era of low-cost economy. The knee-jerk reactions of the government — banning exports, suspending futures trading, imports and higher subsidies — only affect farmers’ income adversely.”
