Kisan Sansad: Designated agri minister quits over farm bills
New agri law faces censure, resolution passed against APMC bypass act
Hardly 2 km from the Indian Parliament where the Monsoon Session is underway, the ‘kisan sansad’ was held at Jantar Mantar for the second day on Friday amidst heavy security arrangements.
The kisan sansad passed a unanimous resolution demanding a repeal of the APMC bypass act.
The resolution takes into account the “adverse experience” of the operation of the APMC bypass act from June 2020 to January 2021 before the Supreme Court suspended its implementation, a statement said. The farmers started the ‘kisan sansad’ (farmers’ parliament) with Speaker Hardev Arshi, deputy Speaker Jagtar Singh Bajwa, and the agriculture minister.
Ravneet Singh Brar, who hails from Punjab’s Muktsar and holds an MBA degree, was chosen
to play the role of the “krishi mantri”, which he felt was a “big opportunity”, as he too belongs to a family of farmers.
He has been an active participant in the farmer’s protest at Singhu border since day 1 and is also the spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kadian).
The ‘sansad’ had a onehour question hour where questions were thrown at
the agriculture minister, who tried his best to defend the Centre’s new agriculture laws.
The minister told the ‘sansad’ how amid the raging Covid pandemic farmers were requested to head back to their homes and get themselves vaccinated. Every time the minister failed to give a satisfactory response, the members shamed him, raised their hands, and objected to his answers.
The 37-year-old agriculture minister, Ravneet Singh Brar, tendered his resignation before the sansad after he failed to address farmers’ issues and could not give any satisfactory response to them. “This includes exploitation and cheating of farmers to the tune of crores of rupees, APMC transactions reducing significantly and large number of mandis suffering massive losses pushing them to the verge of closing down,” the statement said.
Mr Bajwa, while addressing the media, said, “The agriculture minister failed to answer questions following which members of the ‘sansad’ shamed the minister leading to disruption.”
Mr Arshi said the “kisan parliament” was adjourned for a brief period and Friday’s proceedings were similar to the way the actual Parliament functions.