Indian Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and leaders from 14 opposition parties staged a joint protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Friday to underline support for farmers agitating against the centre’s farm laws.
Visuals from news agency ANI showed Mr Gandhi and the other leaders standing in a tight-knit group (they were all wearing face masks, in line with Covid protocols) and shouting slogans against the government. At one point Mr Gandhi was holding a poster that said: ‘Save Farmers, Save India’.
Farmers protesting the central laws have been holding a ‘kisan sansad‘, or ‘farmers’ parliament’ during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament to draw attention to their demands.
Today, with the opposition leaders looking on, the ‘farmers’ parliament’ proposed a ‘no confidence’ motion against the Modi government for its handling of their protest against its laws.
Last week the ‘farmers’ parliament’ ‘discussed’ one of the three laws – the Farmer (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 – found it to be “unconstitutional and pro-corporates”, and passed a resolution demanding its repeal.
“It was resolved the Act is meant for resource grabbing by corporates from farmers, and was in fact brought to promote corporate farming,” a statement from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting farmers’ groups, said.
Protests against the farm laws – which have been rumbling on for several months now – have been widespread , with the Congress-led opposition relentless in attacking the government on this issue.
