Cong plans campaigns, month-long protest across India from Sept 24

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday decided to hit the streets across the country from September 24 to protest against what it described as anti-farmer and anti-poor bills passed in Parliament by the government. The party will also launch a campaign to collect 20 million signatures from protesting farmers against the proposed laws.

The two agricultural reform bills — the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 — were cleared by voice vote in Parliament on Sunday.

Opposition members stormed the well of the House, insisting on a division of votes and demanding that the proposed laws be sent to a select committee for greater scrutiny.

The authorities called in marshals to form a double-layered barricade to protect Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh and remove an MP, muted live telecast of the proceedings, and refused to accept the Opposition’s demand for a division (voting through paper ballots) on the legislation. The NDA government has described the two farm bills passed by Parliament on Sunday to liberalise the agriculture sector as “historic,” but farmers’ groups and activists opposing them allege that the legislation will create a system lacking adequate oversight and make cultivators vulnerable to exploitation.

“The nationwide agitation will continue till the government repeals the black laws,” senior Congress leader AK Antony told reporters after a meeting of general secretaries and in-charge of states at the party headquarters in Delhi. A resolution condemning the bills was also passed at the meeting, which was attended by all the office bearers except Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jitin Prasada who joined it virtually. Jharkhand in-charge RPN Singh could not attend because he was out of Delhi for personal reasons. By announcing a nearly two-month-long protest calendar, the principal opposition party is seeking to regain some of the political space it has lost over the years by tapping the 146 million farmers who have operational land holdings, according to agriculture census of 2015-16.