Farmers Movement Archive

J’khand assembly fails to pass resolution against farm laws

Ranchi: The state government’s plan to debate and pass a resolution against the three central farm laws during the Budget session in the assembly on Monday failed after speaker Ravindranath Mahto adjourned the proceedings midway following a ruckus created by the opposition BJP. The saffron party was against any discussion on the laws and prevented the treasury bench to proceed with it. Talking to media persons outside the assembly later, labour minister Satyanand Bhokta said, “We wanted to debate the farm laws after taking a decision in this regard in the business advisory council. However, the BJP members hijacked the proceedings and disrupted it.” Initially, the resolution was supposed to be passed after debates on the “farm bills” along with the rising prices of essential commodities, for which a notice was given by CPI-ML MLA Vinod Singh and JVM-P legislator Pradeep Yadav. As soon as the Speaker asked Vinod to initiate the debate, BJP legislators sought a clarification on the term “farm bill”. BJP’s Ranchi MLA and former speaker C P Singh asked the chair to clarify which bills were being referred to for the debate. He said, “There is no farm bill in our knowledge. If the members want to discuss farmers’ issues, we have no objection but by including the term ‘bill’, they are trying to mislead the members.” Meanwhile, Vinod started speaking against the farm laws, describing them as black laws which are aimed at benefiting the corporates and not farmers, but he was soon shouted down by the BJP MLAs who gathered in the well sporting black T-shirts to register their protest against any attempt to discuss the farm laws. They continued to raise slogans against the government from the well and a few sat on chairs at the reporters’ table, preventing them from recording the proceedings. JMM’s Samir Kumar Mahanty accused BJP of high-handedness but soon became inaudible in the ruckus. After a few attempts to bring the House in order failed, the Speaker adjourned it. Vinod later said, “It is irrelevant on what terminology the debate was initiated. BJP MLAs picked a non-issue to avoid debating the farm laws. The saffron party had adopted similar tactics even in Parliament when they got the bills passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha without any debate.” He claimed that the mahagathbandhan government was non-committal in getting the resolution passed. “The resolution could have been passed even without a debate since they are in majority. I hope they pass it before the conclusion of the Budget session on Tuesday,” he said. Independent MLA Saryu Rai blamed the government “for its lack of conviction” and said, “What was the need to use the term ‘farm bills’ for a debate when everyone knows it has become law. A general debate on farming and farmers’ condition could have been initiated instead.”

The Times of India

2021-03-23

Ranchi