Cong MPs stage sit-in inside Parliament House complex, demand repeal of farm laws

Congress MPs led by former party chief Rahul Gandhi staged a sit-in inside the Parliament House complex on Friday demanding withdrawal of three new farm laws.

The MPs staged the protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in the Parliament House complex on the first day of the budget session.

Apart from Gandhi, party leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, party's chief whip Lok Sabha Kodikunnil Suresh among other MPs participated in the protest.

The Congress MPs also raised slogans such as 'take back black laws' and 'Narendra Modi, kisaan virodhi (anti-farmers).

"Lakhs of farmers have been on the streets for two months against the three laws, but the government is not listening to them. We will put full pressure on the government this session demanding a withdrawal of the anti-farmer laws," Suresh said.

Earlier, during the President's address, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu raised slogans like 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'. Some opposition MPs were heard raising slogans in the Central Hall's gallery.

In the Lok Sabha, during obituray references, Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla raised the issue of farmers who have died during the agitation and demanded that respects should also be paid to them in the House. The Speaker did not allow him to speak further.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting at several border points into Delhi since November-end, demanding repeal of the three laws and a legal guarantee to the minimum support system (MSP) for their crops.

Enacted last September, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

However, the protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the wholesale market system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.