Opposition joins farmers’ protest at Jantar Mantar
NEW DELHI: Leaders of 13 Opposition parties attended the farmers’ protest at Jantar Mantar against three controversial farm laws on Friday as disruptions and protests continued to rock Parliament for the 14th day with the Opposition sticking to its demand for a debate on the Pegasus phone hacking controversy.
Around 200 farmers have been camping at Jantar Mantar since July 22 to hold what they call a “kisan parliament’ (farmers’ parliament) to demonstrate against the three central laws that sparked protests in food bowl states immediately after being passed last year.
Congress leader Raul Gandhi said at the site, “You all know what is happening in the Parliament. We want to talk about the Pegasus in Parliament but they (government) are not allowing the issue of Pegasus to be raised.”
He blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “(PM) Narendra Modi has snooped inside every Indian’s phone,” he said.
The former Congress chief also announced that the Opposition parties came to Jantar Mantar “to support farmers from all parts of India”.
“Nothing can be worked out through a discussion. These laws need to be repealed,” he said.
The visit to the protest site, as reported by HT on Friday, however, was not without some underlying tensions in the Opposition ranks. Trinamool Congress (TMC) sent three MPS to Jantar Mantar at 10 am, about two hours before Gandhi and other leaders met the farmers.
A senior TMC leader said their schedule was fixed last Tuesday while another leader suggested that TMC would maintain distance from any event seen to be “led” by Gandhi. In the morning meeting where Gandhi was present, Mamata Banejree’s party sent representatives but not their floor leaders.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Indian Union Muslim League, Revolutionary Socialist Party, National Conference and Loktrantrik Janata Dal were present at Jantar Mantar, apart from the Congress.
The monsoon session of Parliament has been washed out by protests and disruptions by Opposition parties over the alleged snooping row, controversial farm bills, rising petrol prices and other issues.
In the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury cautioned the government that they are just “tenants” and “power and money” won’t last forever. He added that from the beginning of the session, the Opposition wanted to debate the three farm laws and the price rise.
Junior minister for parliamentary affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal retorted and said that, “Even the government wanted these debates but you (the Opposition) are not allowing us.”
With no end to logjam in sight, the government added four more bills, including a Constitutional amendment, in its agenda. It also wants to clear bills to create national commission for homeopathy and national commission for Indian system of medicines.
Govt open to talks with farmers: Tomar
Amid farmers protest against three contentious farm laws at Jantar Mantar here, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday informed Parliament again that the government was always open for discussion to resolve the issue.
Asserting that the government engaged itself actively and constantly with the agitating farmer unions to end the protests, the minister said that 11 rounds of negotiating talks were held between the government and agitating farmers to resolve the issues.
However, farmer unions never agreed to discuss the farm laws except for demanding their repeal,” he said.