Farm bills row: 15 opposition parties pen joint letter to President, urge him not to sign

In a major development on Monday, 15 opposition parties wrote a joint letter to President Ram Nath Kovind urging him to t give assent to farm bills passed by Parliament. y alleged that democracy was "murdered" in Rajya Sabha on September 20 when  Farmers' Produce Tre and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and  Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 were taken up for discussion and pass. Maintaining that re is place for arrogance, y claimed that voice of MPs speaking for farmers was stifled.

While farm bills were cleared via voice vote, parties highlighted that a division of votes was t allowed by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Harivansh Narayan Singh. Moreover, y accused Centre of t building consensus on extending duration of proceedings beyond 1 pm. In ar serious charge, letter alleged that half of RS members sitting in Lok Sabha chamber were t permitted to participate in any manner. Condemning alleged "brazen act" of Union government, y claimed that it did t have support to clear bills.

letter was signed by Congress' Ghulam Nabi Az, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Abhishek Singhvi, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, NCP's Praful Patel, LJD's MV Shreyams Kumar, AAP's Sanjay Singh, RJD's Maj Jha, IUML's PV Abdul Wahab, TMC's Derek O'Brien and Nimul Haque, Kerala Congress(M)'s Jose K Mani, TRS' K Keshava Rao and KR Suresh Reddy, JD(S) leer HD Deve Gowda, CPI(M) leer Elamaram Kareem, DMK's Tiruchi Silva, CPI's Biy Viswam and SP's Ram Gopal Yav. 

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Union Law Minister gives an explanation

Earlier in day, Union Law & Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Pras revealed that Harivansh Singh was rey to put for vote opposition's motion to send farm bills to a Select Committee. According to him, voting could t take place as opposition MPs did t go back to ir seats despite  RS Deputy Chairperson requesting m 13 times in this regard. He ded that Harivansh Singh could have been physically assaulted by MPs in absence of protection by marshals. Pras also ted that government h a clear majority in Upper House with 110 MPs in favour of bills as against 72 votes of opposition. 

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