Farmers Movement Archive

Haryana assembly: Din in House over resolution to vote before debate on farm laws

The Haryana assembly on Friday witnessed an unusual and heated verbal skirmish over whether an official resolution should be put to vote before discussion in the House. Ruckus prevailed in the House and the proceedings were stalled for about 140 minutes that included two adjournments of 75 minutes. The trouble began soon after chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar moved an official resolution backing the Centre’s three contentious farm laws. At the core of the BJP-JJP coalition government’s official resolution was an attempt to checkmate the Congress chorus that these laws are anti-farmer. Earlier, when speaker Gian Chand Gupta rejected the Congress resolution against the Centre’s farm laws, the opposition party had staged a walkout. The state government wanted to convey to the Centre that “this House resolves to express its thanks to the government of India for these landmark reforms in the agriculture sector through these legislations.” The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the party will support the resolution if the government brings in another law, promising Minimum Support Price (MSP). “Otherwise, we don’t support this resolution. And let there be a voting first (on government’s resolution),” Hooda said. “These three laws are against farmers,” he said, adding “and they don’t protect interests of the farmers. How can we call them pro-farmer?” Hooda’s offensive kicked-off heated arguments between the treasury benches and the Congress. It began at 1.30pm and continued till 3.20 pm when speaker Gian Chand Gupta named all the Congress MLAs present in the House and adjourned proceedings for the second time. The order prevailed when the House re-assembled at 3.50pm as the Congress MLAs who had been named by the speaker could not join the proceedings and held a protest outside the Vidhan Sabha. Finally, the debate began and the official resolution after an hour-long discussion was passed in Khattar’s absence who along with the speaker had gone to the Punjab Raj Bhawan. Both sides digs in heels Taken aback by Hooda’s demand for “voting first and debate later” on Khattar’s resolution, the speaker sought to know under what rule the Congress was pressing for voting before discussion. Holding Vidhan Sabha rule book in their hands, Congress leaders such as Hooda, Dr Raghuvir Singh Kadian, Kiron Choudhry and Bharat Bhushan Batra quoted rules in support of their contention. The speaker too referred to the rule book and rejected the Congress’ demand. “I thought the sitting will continue till midnight. Now you are running away from the debate. Hold the debate,” he asked the Congress MLAs, who had trooped to the well of the House and were resorting to sloganeering. Khattar attempted to end the stalemate and parliamentary affairs minister Kanwar Pal, who was speaker during the previous term of the BJP, launched the counter offensive and backed speaker Gupta’s stand that voting, if needed, will take place after the debate. Disorder continued in the House as Congress MLAs refused to relent. The Congress stalwart Dr Kadian was seen tearing some papers in the well of the House, while other MLAs were shouting slogans.The speaker adjourned the House at 1.55pm till 2.40pm. Sources say the speaker held meeting with Congress leaders to break the logjam. During the next 40 minutes after the House re-assembled again, the same chorus “voting first or the debate first” continued. Both the sides refused to yield. At this, Khattar said the government was ready to hold discussion all through the night on farm laws, but the Congress kept insisting for voting. The speaker said: “No voting without discussion.” He said Congress was “bulldozing democratic rights of other members of the House.” The speaker again adjourned the proceedings for 30 minutes at 3.20pm. Ultimately, the debate was held and the resolution was passed but in absence of the Congress lawmakers.

Hindustan Times

07-11-2020

Chandigarh