Chandigarh, Dec 15,2020 – Former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today condemned the Union government for scrapping the winter session of parliament, stating the government was running away from its responsibility to resolve the grievances of farmers by repealing the three agricultural marketing laws. She demanded that a special one day session be held at the earliest to repeal the three laws as per the wishes of the farming community.
In a statement here, the Bathinda MP said “the centre knows that it is in the wrong. It knows it has legislated on agriculture which is a State subject and that farmers of all States have rejected the three acts it bull dozed through in the last season. It knows it cannot face the people on this issue and that it is why it has invented the excuse of COVID-19 to cancel the winter session of parliament”.
Terming the move as a murder of democracy Harsimrat Badal said parliamentarians had been denied an opportunity to raise the voice of the farmers. “The farmers are suffering untold hardship in biting cold wave conditions and parliamentarians wanted to highlight this. They also wanted to put pressure on the government to repeal the three hated agri laws which have been rejected by the farmers. There is no reason to keep laws in force which the people don’t want”.
Calling for a one day special parliament session to repeal the black laws, Badal said this was the need of the day. “Adequate safety precautions can be taken for a special one day session and the government should not make any excuses on this score”.
Harsimrat also asked the central government not to adopt a stubborn and intransigent attitude on the issue. She said the government should understand that there were no takers for its much touted “gift” to the farming community. “It is only fair that you take back a gift of the recipient does not want it”. She also highlighted that twenty farmers had already lost their lives and asked how many more should be martyred before the government listened to their voice”.
Mrs Badal also asked the Congress party to show complete solidarity with farmers and not to adopt double standards. She said while chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh was toeing the central line and asking farmers to lift their dharna and a majority of Congress MPs were oblivious to the suffering of the farmers, four Congress MPs were indulging in a sit in at Delhi to befool the farmers. “The Congress party has always worked against the interests of farmers and it is condemnable that it has tamely agreed to the scrapping of the winter session”, Mrs. Badal added.
