0
Comment(s)
*
* The moderation of comments is automated and not cleared manually by indianexpress.com.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, MoS, Commerce, Som Prakash and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. (PTI)From urging the Centre to rethink its stand on the newly enacted farm laws to calls for repeal of the laws and a short winter session of Parliament to discuss the farmer protests, the Opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress mounted pressure Thursday on the Government to find an amicable solution to the agitation at the gates of Delhi.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi before the start of talks between farmer representatives and Union Ministers, urged the Centre to rethink its stand on the new farm laws. He also appealed to farmers to find an early solution to the problem which, he said, was adversely impacting Punjab’s economy and posed a “serious danger to national security”.
“The problem needs to be solved quickly,” the Chief Minister told Shah. He told reporters later that neither he nor the Punjab government were involved in mediation with farmer groups in any way, and its for the Centre and the farmers to resolve the matter. He reiterated that the Centre should protect the MSP regime and continue with the Mandi system. He asked the Union Home Minister to listen to the farmers with an “open mind” to resolve the standoff soon.
In Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee threatened to launch a country-wide agitation if the “anti-farmer” laws were not withdrawn.
“I am very much concerned about the farmers, their lives and livelihood. GOI must withdraw the anti-farmer bills. If they do not do so immediately, we will agitate throughout the state and the country. From the very start, we have been strongly opposing these anti-farmer bills,” Banerjee said in a Twitter post.
“We have called a meeting of the All India Trinamool Congress on Friday, December 4. We will discuss how the Essential Commodities Act is impacting common people and resulting in skyrocketing prices. The central government must withdraw this anti-people law,” she said.
TMC sources said she has asked her party to take to the streets against the farm laws, and show solidarity with the protesting farmers. In Kolkata, the protests will be held next week under Banerjee’s leadership, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress leader in Lok Sabha, wrote to Speaker Om Birla, urging him to convene a short winter session of Parliament to discuss the farmer agitation and other important issues like the border standoff with China and the status of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“There are a number of very important issues that the nation is facing in the present times. The most notable among them are the ongoing farmers’ agitation, status/preparation of Covid-19 vaccine, the economic slowdown, unemployment scenario, the continuous standoff on India-China border, unabated ceasefire violation on Indo-Pak border. There is a need for a thorough and transparent debate/discussion on all the above mentioned important issues,” Chowdhury said in his letter to the Speaker.
“I shall request you that a short Winter Session may be convened taking all Covid precautions. This will help the nation… to understand and appreciate current important issues that the country is grappling with,” he said.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor said, “I think this is an excellent initiative, which will enjoy the support of most of the Opposition MPs. In a Parliamentary democracy, we should not be disregarding the one constitutional forum that exists to deliberate on such vital issues.”
Continuing to target the Government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said “accepting anything less than scrapping of the three black farm laws will be deceit to farmers and the country”. His party colleague Ashwani Kumar said: “The writing on the wall is clear. If not urgently resolved to the satisfaction of farmers, the situation could become ugly and the protest irreversible. Such a result could prove a grave threat to internal stability and security of the nation.”