Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that the farm sector reform bills passed by Parliament were the need of 21st century India.

Addressing a virtual ceremony to lay foundation stones of nine highway projects in Bihar, the prime minister also took a dig at the Opposition saying some people are trying to mislead the farmers because they are losing the control of the agricultural sector.

“After these historical changes in the agricultural sector, some people are losing their control of it. So now these people are trying to mislead farmers on MSP (minimum support price). They are the same people who sat for years on the recommendations of the Swaminathan committee on MSP,” PM Modi said.

He said a “clique” of people exploited farmers for long as they remained in shackles of rules regulating the sale of their produce and stated that this needed to change, which his government has done.

The prime minister described the legislations as “very historic”, and said that if people say that government-regulated agriculture markets will be finished after these reforms, then they are “blatantly lying”.

Seeking to dispel concerns among a section of farmers, PM Modi said he wanted to make it clear that the bills are not against ‘mandis’ (agricultural markets) and they will continue like they always have. “No government has done as much to boost MSP and government procurement of farmers’ produce than his dispensation,” the prime minister said.

The bills were passed by the Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) amid ruckus. The Opposition members who were against the legislations wanted them to be sent to a parliamentary panel for greater scrutiny.

The bills were passed through voice vote, after which the Opposition called it a “black day”.

Meawhile, PM Modi inaugurated nine infrastructure development projects worth Rs 14,000 crores for Bihar through video conferencing on Monday.

He also inaugurated the ‘Ghar Tak Fibre’ Project under which all 45,945 villages of Bihar will be connected through optical fibre internet service.