India: On Thursday, as many as 12 MPs from Opposition parties met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and handed him a letter demanding a discussion in the house on the ongoing farmers’ agitation. This was barely hours after a delegation of 15 non-NDA Members of Parliament were stopped from visiting protesting farmers at Delhi’s Ghazipur border.
This delegation, led by former union minister in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) comprised MPs from DMK, NCP and the Trinamool Congress among others.
In their letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Opposition MPs wrote, “The impression we got at the Delhi Ghazipur border is like the border between India and Pakistan. The condition of farmers resembles that of prisoners in jail.”
