The AAP has tabled three bills to counter the farm laws, as its MLAs tore copies of the centre’s bills
New Delhi:
Aam Aadmi Party MLAs ripped apart copies of the centre’s controversial farm bills during a special session of the Delhi Assembly that was called on Thursday to discuss the farmers’ protest.
In visuals shared by the ruling party, the AAP’s Mahendra Goyal and Somnath Bharti tore the bills in half as the state government tabled three bills to counter those passed by the centre in September.
“We refuse to accept these black laws, which are against farmers,” Mr Goyal and Mr Bharti said.
“We oppose all three laws and the Arvind Kejriwal government stand with the farmers,” Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, who tabled the bills, said. Delhi is set to become the third state (after Congress-ruled Punjab and Rajasthan) to pass legislation designed to counter the centre’s laws.
हम तीनों कानूनों का विरोध करते है और केजरीवाल सरकार किसानों के इस संघर्ष में हर प्रकार से उनके साथ खड़ी है।- मंत्री @kgahlot जी pic.twitter.com/njoIitwRLm
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) December 17, 2020
The AAP has been a vocal supporter of the farmers, and even provided basic infrastructure – drinking water, medical care and sanitation – to thousands who fought past tear gassing and lathi charges, and are now braving the cold, to camp on Delhi borders for nearly three weeks now.
AAP MLAs @attorneybharti and @MohinderAAP tears copy of 3 Farm Bills.
“We refuse to accept these black laws which are against farmers.” pic.twitter.com/7s4puJNZPA
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) December 17, 2020
Last week Chief Minister Kejriwal visited farmers at Singhu (on the Delhi-Haryana border) and said: “We support all the demands of the farmers. Their issues and demands are valid.” Mr Kejriwal also called the bills “harmful for the country”, and said they “decriminalise profiteering and hoarding”.
The Chief Minister has also lashed out at critics of the farmers, who have denounced the protest as being engineered by the opposition or separatist elements.
“Some BJP leaders are saying farmers are anti-national. Many ex-servicemen… singers, celebrities, doctors, traders are supporting them… are all these also anti-nationals?” he asked Monday.
This morning the Supreme Court, while hearing a clutch of petitions on the issue, said that while protests may continue they could not be allowed to block access to the national capital.
The thousands of farmers camped around Delhi have also occupied highways and obstructed traffic in and out of the city over the past three weeks. They have, however, made it a point never to stop emergency services, such as ambulances.
Over 20 protesters have died since the agitation began, farmer leaders have claimed.
The 65-year-old priest of a Haryana gurudwara died by suicide – he shot himself – this week, leaving behind a note that expressed his “anger and pain against the government’s injustice”.
Multiple rounds of talks between the farmers and the centre have, so far, failed to resolve the stand-off; neither side is willing to back down – the farmers wants the laws to be scrapped and the centre says it will only amend the more problematic sections.
With input from ANI
