Had govt heard us, agitation could have been averted: Opposition
Item
Title
Had govt heard us, agitation could have been averted: Opposition
Description
NEW DELHI: Congress Saturday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the agitation by the farmers would not have happened had the government undertaken consultations on the three farm bills, saying that it had warned the government in advance. At the all-party meeting chaired by the PM, the opposition parties including Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena and Akali Dal raised the farmers’s issue. An all-party meeting to discuss the farm bills was also demanded. Ghulam Nabi Azad said there would have been no agitation like it was happening in north India had the government heeded the opposition demand to send the three bills to select committee for scrutiny. Importantly, the opposition parties condemned the violence in the capital on the Republic Day while arguing that it was the handiwork of some lumpen elements and it should be investigated. “The government instead of catching the real culprits, is trying to implicate the farmers’s leaders,” Azad alleged, cautioning that such action will provoke an “exponential growth” in the agitation which “the government will not be able to manage”. Azad called the abrogation of Article 370 and the downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir state into a UT as unfortunate and demanded immediate statehood for J&K. He said the situation in the UT was grave and its borders with Pakistan and China made it geographically sensitive. Shiv Sena’s Vinayak Raut urged that the Centre declare the Marathi-speaking area Belgaum in Karnataka as a UT, alleging that Karnataka government was committing atrocities on locals there. He also sought the Centre’s coordination with Maharashtra government in filing the affidavit in the Supreme Court on Maratha reservation issue, so that the stay on the quota could be vacated.
Publisher
The Times of India
Date
2021-01-31
Coverage
India