Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repealing of the three controversial farm laws as he reached out to the agitating farmers on the auspicious occasion of Gurupurab and urged them to return home from their agitation sites on the highways.

Addressing the nation on Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary, the Prime Minister said that the three farm laws would be repealed in the forthcoming session of Parliament which begins this month. 

He said that although the laws had been enacted with the noble intention of benefiting the farmers, perhaps his government could not explain these benefits to some farmers even though nationwide there was an acceptance of these reforms.

"I apologise to India and with a true mind and pure heart… may be we were not able to convince farmers over the farm laws. I'm here to declare that we have decided to repeal the three farm laws…We will complete all the formalities during the Parliament session that begins this month," PM Modi said in his address to the nation on Friday.

"Whatever I did, I did for farmers. What I'm doing is for the country. With your blessings, I never left out anything in my hard work. Today I assure you that I'll now work even harder, so that your dreams, and the nation's dreams can be realised," PM Modi said.

The farm laws which had been suspended for two years will now be rolled back, which was the demand of the agitating farmers who had blocked the national highways leading to the capital for several months.

The farmers were apprehensive that the three farm laws would do away with the existing purchase system under which they sell their wheat and rice at an assured minimum support price to the government.  Although the government had assured them that this system would remain in place and the new laws would only provide for additional purchase by private companies, they had refused to come on board.

The Prime Minister said that his government had taken several steps to benefit farmers and would continue to do so. He pointed out that as much as Rs 1. 62 lakh crore had been deposited directly into the accounts of farmers.

The government had also increased the minimum support price of various crops and increased the number of government purchase centres in the country over the last year. In fact, a record amount of foodgrains had been procured by the government, he added.

This was a clear message that the doubts of the farmers had turned out to be unfounded.

He also said that the government had been providing quality seeds, neem-based urea fertilizer and set up micro-irrigation projects to benefit farmers. All these measures would be continued with an even greater vigour, he added.