According to reports, close to 15-20 unidentified people belonging to the Punjab Youth Congress gathered at the India Gate on Monday morning and set the tractor on fire. The incident took place around at 7.42 am and two fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

#WATCH: Punjab Youth Congress workers stage a protest against the farm laws near India Gate in Delhi. A tractor was also set ablaze. pic.twitter.com/iA5z6WLGXR

— ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2020

The group of people gathered at the spot raised slogans like “Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Amar rahe” (Long live Shaheed Bhagat Singh), and “Kisaan-Virodhi, Narendra Modi” (Anti-farmers, Narendra Modi).’

The incident comes amid protests by farmers and opposition parties across the country over the contentious farm legislations that were passed by the Parliament last week.

Meanwhile, Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar slammed Congress and called it a drama. “Congress workers brought tractor near India Gate and set it on fire. This is the drama of Congress. Hence, the Congress was evicted from power by the people,” Javadekar tweeted.

कांग्रेस के कार्यकर्ताओं ने ट्रक में ट्रेक्टर लाए और इंडिया गेट के पास जलाया। यही है कांग्रेस का नाटक। इसलिए कांग्रेस को लोगों ने सत्ता से बेदखल किया। https://t.co/uPOFizT3KR

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) September 28, 2020

President Ram Nath Kovind on September 27 gave assent to three contentious farm bills passed in Parliament last week that have triggered farmers’ protest especially in Punjab and Haryana.

The three farm bills are: The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020.

The government said that these bills will allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere they want at a better price.

However farmers fear that the center’s reforms would pave a way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, which might give big advantages to corporates, leaving farmers at their mercy.

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The announcement comes over a week after Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the cabinet in protest against three ordinances- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.

Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal has said the party was never consulted on the ordinances, and that Harsimrat , his wife, had informed the government about farmers’ reservations.

SAD was one of the oldest allies of the BJP. It was amongst the first to support the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal is a founder member of National Democratic Alliance.

The two Bills – which seek to replace Ordinances passed in June – were passed in Parliament by voice vote and await the assent of the President. SAD had voted against the Bills.

Farmers in Haryana and Punjab have been agitating against the Bills. On September 25, SAD held large protests across Punjab as part of its ‘chakka jam’ programme to express solidarity with farmers even as it asked CM Amarinder Singh to call an immediate Cabinet meeting and pass an ordinance to declare the entire state as one mandi (Principal Market Yard) to ensure the central agricultural Bills are not enforceable in the state.

The post SAD ends its long term alliance with BJP-led NDA appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

This bills were passed amid most of the opposition including the Congress, Left parties, the TMC, the Samajwadi Party and the NCP decided to boycott House proceedings in protest against the suspension of eight MPs for the remainder of the session for unruly behaviour.

Only members from the ruling BJP and its ally JD-U and those of parties such as AIADMK, BJD, YSR-Congress and TDP, which have been extending support to the Modi government on various issues, participated in the debates on the bills.

In most bills, the members participation was sparse and the minister’s reply brief.

The Upper House took up government legislative business after nearly an hour of discussion over the conduct of opposition MPs during the passage of two agriculture reform bills on Sunday, with Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu saying the suspension could be revoked if the members expressed regret over their action.

The Oppositon decided to boycott the proceedings of Rajya Sabha till three key demands as well as requests of revoking of the suspension of eight members, are met. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had declared in the upper house on Tuesday as high drama continued for the third straight day.

The suspended members continued their sit-in on the lawns of the parliament complex till about 11:30 AM after spending the night there in protest. They were suspended over Sunday’s unprecedented chaos and “unruly behaviour” in the Rajya Sabha when two controversial farm bills were passed.

Expressing solidarity to the protesting parties, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar announced that he would observe a day-long fast on Tuesday. He criticised the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chaiperson’s conduct and the Modi government’s decision to thwart the Opposition in the House.

The NCP chief further said that the eight MPs were expelled for voicing their opinion and added that the Deputy Chairman did not give priority to rules of the House.

The post Rajya Sabha passes seven key bills in three and half hours appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

The members, including Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Sanjay singh, Congress’s Rajeev Satav and CPM’s KK Ragesh, were told they had displayed “unruly behavior especially with the Chair and gross disorderly conduct”.

“I am pained at what happened yesterday. It defies logic. It is a bad day for Rajya Sabha,” said Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu. He said the members threw papers, wrenched mics away, “physically threatened” Deputy Chairman Harivansh Singh and even abused him.

“I am naming Mr Derek O Brien. Please go out of the house,” Mr Naidu said, as he named the suspended members. The house was adjourned for the third time at 10.40 am.

Two of the government’s three farm bills, which have led to massive protests by opposition parties and farmers, were passed on September 21 amid an uproar in the Rajya Sabha.

MPs claim they had asked for a physical vote but they were denied. The deputy chairman conducted a voice vote without paying attention to the protests. Rajya Sabha TV muted the audio telecast of the proceedings.

The bill was opposed by BJP’s estranged ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal, TRS and BJD which, in a rare instance, decided to vote “no”.

The two bills- Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020 and the Farmers(Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, will now be sent to the President for his assent.

The post Rajya Sabha chaos: 8 MPs axed for a week appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

The three farm bills—Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill- were passed by the Lok Sabha recently.
While the farmers and the Opposition have termed the farm bills as “anti-farmer” which would leave them at the “mercy” of big corporates, the Centre says it would open up new opportunities for them to make them “atma-nirbhar [self-reliant]”

In Haryana, the farmers have decided to block all roads, including highways. Additional Chief Secretary (home) Vajai Vardhan has asked the officers to deal with protesters with “tact and patience”. However, he added that “they (protesters) should not be allowed to take law in their hands and prompt action be taken against those found to be indulging in loot, arson or damage to life, property or vehicles”.

While the ruling dispensation appears to have the numbers despite strong opposition from the Congress and other parties to clear the Bills, some key BJP leaders are said to be in touch with various regional outfits to seek support from their Upper House members for these bills.

BJD, SAD urge govt to send farm bills to select committee amid uproar

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