Congress MPs' protest at Jantar Mantar against farm laws completes 300 days

Congress MPs from Punjab, who were protesting against the farm laws at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, have completed 300 days on Saturday. Rajya Sabha MP KTS Tulsi met the protesting lawmakers and along with Jasbir Singh Gil and others.

New Delhi: The protest by Congress MPs from Punjab at Jantar Mantar here against the farm laws completed 300 days on Saturday, one of the protesting parliamentarians said. On the 300th day, Rajya Sabha MP KTS Tulsi met the protesting lawmakers and along with Jasbir Singh Gill, Ravneet Bittu, Gurjit Aujla, Kulbir Singh, Parminder Pinki marked the occasion at the protest site. The MPs demanded a repeal of the farm laws. In a statement, Gill alleged the BJP is the most "self-centred party" which can "stoop to any level for votes".

Misuse of constitutional institutions is rampant to browbeat political adversaries and to silence dissenting voices, he alleged. The protesting MPs said at least one of them always stays at the protest site. The government and farmer unions have held 11 rounds of talks so far, the last being on January 22, to break the deadlock and end the farmers' protest. Talks have not resumed following widespread violence during a tractor rally by the protesting farmers on January 26.

The three laws -- The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020 -- were passed by Parliament in September last year. Farmer groups have alleged that these laws will end the "mandi" and the MSP systems and leave the farmers at the mercy of big corporates, even as the government has rejected these apprehensions as misplaced and asserted that these steps will help increase farmers' income.

PTI