Opposition will boycott session till our demands are met: Ghulam Nabi Azad
Sep 22, 2020
New Delhi [India], September 22 : We will boycott the monsoon session till the government brings another Bill which assures that the private players will not be able to purchase produce from the farmers below the MSP and our other demands are not met, said Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday.
The senior Congress leader, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, also demanded the revocation of suspension of the eight MPs who had been suspended by the Chairman over the ruckus on September 20.
"Till our demands, which include revocation of suspension of the 8 MPs and the government to bring another Bill under which no private player can purchase below MSP are not met, the Opposition will boycott the session," Azad said.
The senior leader, however, agreed that the events in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday shouldn't have taken place in the manner but said that MPs were given very limited time to speak on the issue which was the root of discontentment among them.
"No one is happy with the incidents that have taken place in this House...The public wants their leaders should be heard. No one can put across their views in just 2-3 minutes. There will be 90 per cent de-escalation if MPs are not constrained by time to speak," he said.
He also raised the issue of Bills being not sent to standing committees for scrutiny among other issues and asserted that when Congress-led governments were in power the leaders of Opposition were not constrained by any time limit for speaking in the House.
Opposition leaders staged a walk-out from the Rajya Sabha and carried out a protest before the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament premises on Tuesday.
Parliamentarians from Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiv Sena, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India (Marxist) boycotted the house demanding revocation of suspension of the eight MPs.
Meanwhile, the dharna, which was being staged by the suspended Rajya Sabha MPs ended after the Opposition members boycotted the House.
The Rajya Sabha witnessed unruly scenes on Sunday as Opposition members stormed the well of the House and reached the Deputy Chairman's seat to protest against the 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. Later, eight MPs were suspended by the Rajya Sabha Chairman on Monday over the ruckus created in the Upper House.
