Farmers Movement Archive

BJP-JJP govt defeats Cong’s no-confidence motion in Haryana assembly

The ruling Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP)- Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) combine in Haryana on Wednesday won the trust vote in the state assembly with 55 out of 87 MLAs present in the House voting against the no-confidence motion moved against the Manohar Lal Khattar government. The Congress had brought the no-confidence motion. The BJP with 40 MLAs (including Speaker who didn’t vote) in the assembly got the backing of 10 JJP MLAs, five Independents and lone Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) MLA, Gopal Kanda. The present strength of the House is 88 with two seats, Ellenabad and Kalka, having fallen vacant recently. Barring two Independent MLAs – Sombir Sangwan (Dadri) and Balraj Kundu (Meham), who had earlier withdrawn their support to the government, none of the MLAs who professed support to farmer’s cause and publicly voiced opposition to the three central farm laws, supported the motion. JJP MLAs --- Jogi Ram Sihag, Devendra Babli and Ram Kumar Gautam --- who are known for being outspoken on the farmers issue also stomached the party whip to vote against the motion. Babli though wanted to speak during the discussion on the motion but could not as JJP legislature group leader Dushyant Chautala excluded him from the list of speakers. Kundu while speaking for the motion said that he was not with the no confidence motion of the Congress but standing in support of farmers. Slamming the government Sombir Sangwan said that assembly should pass a resolution asking the Centre to repeal the three farm laws and bring a fourth law to ameliorate the sufferings of the peasants Lone HLP MLA who was absent for the last three sittings of this session was also present to lend his support to the government. Soon after chief minister, ML Khattar finished his address on the motion, assembly speaker, Gian Chand Gupta put the motion to vote, and a division of votes took place. The Speaker ruled that 32 votes were in favour of the motion while 55 were against it. Earlier, leader of opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda who opened the discussion on the motion said that the ruling alliance have the numbers to prove majority. “However, the real test is whether the BJP and JJP leaders can visit their constituencies. They have lost the people’s confidence,” the Congress leader said. After the trust vote, Hooda said though the government has survived the floor test, it has fallen in the eyes of the people. “The JJP MLAs and Independents, who are allies of the BJP-led government, had a great chance to vote for the farmers and prove their commitment to the masses. But they squandered it. But we voted against this anti-farmer government which lathi-charged, fired tear gas shells and used water cannons in peak winter and implicated them in false cases,” Hooda said. Speaking against the motion, Khattar said the three farm laws enacted by the Parliament will not be repealed. “There can be amendments in these laws but repealing them is out of question,’’ Khattar said. Farmers have been protesting at the Delhi border since November 26 last year against the newly enacted central farm laws.

Hindustan Times

11-03-2021

Chandigarh