News Analysis India

Tag: Pratap Singh Bajwa

  • Anurag Thakur says Congress MP’s conduct in Rajya Sabha shameful, likens it to Red Fort vandalism

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Union minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday likened the unruly behaviour of Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa in the Rajya Sabha to the January 26 vandalism at the Red Fort and said throwing a file at the Chair in the House was a “shameful” incident.

    He also lashed out at Congress and other opposition parties over the disruption of the proceedings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, saying those who have been sent to Parliament by people to raise their issues are resorting to unruly behaviour.

    Bajwa was on Tuesday seen throwing an official file at the Chair in the Rajya Sabha after climbing the table occupied by officials during the protest by opposition members when the House was to commence a discussion on farmers’ issues.

    “Throwing a file at the Chair after climbing the table was a shameful incident,” Thakur told reporters.

    “If someone takes pride in resorting to such an act, I feel that the shameful incidents of January 26 are being repeated,” he added.

    Bajwa on Tuesday said he had no regrets about creating ruckus in the Rajya Sabha and was ready to face any action for raising his voice against the farm laws.

    “I have no regrets. I will do this 100 times again if the government does not give us an opportunity to discuss the three black anti-agriculture laws,” he had told PTI.

  • Have no regrets, ready to face any action for farmers’ cause: Pratap Singh Bajwa after Rajya Sabha ruckus

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday said he has no regrets about creating ruckus in Rajya Sabha and is ready to face any action for raising his voice against the farm laws.

    Bajwa was seen throwing an official file at the Chair after climbing the table occupied by officials during the protest by opposition members when the House was to commence a discussion on farmers’ issues.

    “I have no regrets. I will do this 100 times again if the government does not give us an opportunity to discuss the three black anti-agriculture laws,” he told PTI.

    “I will be happy if the government punishes me for highlighting the cause of farmers and seeking the repeal of anti-farmer laws. Being the son of a farmer, I stand by the farmers and their cause,” he said.

    Bajwa said they had “no other option” as the government was disallowing their notice seeking a discussion on the repeal of the three farm laws.

    He said he has not committed any crime by raising farmers’ concerns and has no regrets.

    The government, on its part, has accused the opposition members of lowering the dignity of the House with their unruly conduct.

    The MP from Punjab said the government was behaving like the British, “who had to bow before the farmers during the pre-independent times”.

    “The government will have to take these farm laws back one day as we will continue to fight for the farmers,” he said, adding that the laws were akin to signing the “death warrants of farmers”.

    Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that the pandemonium in Rajya Sabha was a “direct consequence of the mischievous strategy” of the Modi Government to “divide” the Opposition and its refusal to discuss the repeal of the three farm laws.

    TMC member Derek O’Brien shared a video of the opposition ruckus when the discussion on the farmers’ problems was being taken up in the upper house after lunch.

    He also alleged that the government was running away from repealing the farm laws.

    Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, however, said the “undemocratic behaviour” of Congress, TMC and AAP proves that there is nothing wrong with the new farm laws and the problem lies in their perception.

    He said if the Opposition members were concerned about farmers and agriculture, they would have participated in the discussion and put forth their viewpoints instead of protesting.

  • Farm laws enacted in undemocratic manner, PM should repeal them: Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: In a vociferous attack on the Centre, Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa on Friday compared the barricades set up at the farmers’ protest site at Ghazipur with the Berlin Wall and concentration camps, and took a strong objection to farmers being branded as anti-national and Khalistanis.

    Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in Rajya Sabha, the senior Congress leader also demanded setting up a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge to conduct an impartial probe within two months into the incidents on January 26 that led to violence.

    Terming the three farm laws as “death warrants” for farmers, Bajwa in his speech in Punjabi, accused the government of enacting them in an undemocratic manner and suppressing the opposition’s voice for division and voting at a time when migrant labourers were facing an unprecedented ordeal amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

    He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grab the opportunity to become a statesman of the stature of Sardar Patel by going to Delhi borders to meet the farmers and repealing the laws.

    “How can farmers trust you,” he asked while comparing the farmer agitation sites at Delhi’s borders to scenes from Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Uganda and not the country of Mahatma Gandhi.

    “You are erecting barbed wires…as if Berlin Wall is being built…You are giving Delhi borders shape of concentration camps,” he charged.

    Bajwa also spoke about the visit of MPs to the Ghazipur protest site.

    “Parliament is in session. Twelve parties leaders went to Ghazipur but police did not allow them to meet farmers. Is this democracy”, he said.

    Criticising disconnection of water, electricity and internet at Delhi’s borders, he said this is the treatment meted out to the community which “fed” thousands of Pakistani prisoners of war in 1971 for 2 years.

    “You brand us as Khalistanis…anti-nationals…Don’t teach us nationalism. Every month a child from Punjab and Haryana returns home wrapped in the tricolour…Guru Teg Bahadur sacrificed his life to protect Kashmiri Brahmins…My brother, a brigadier at 192 Mt Brigade, led the victory to Tiger Hill,” he said.

    Bajwa asserted that during the British regime farmers led by Gandhi and Patel forced the British on a back foot after six-months of agitation against farm laws and it was time now for PM Modi to show magnanimity by withdrawing the “black laws”.

    “You say you are a call away…Tell me who has your number,” he said referring to the prime minister and urged him to create a new history by repealing the present laws and framing another after wide consultations.

    “You claim that you will keep the laws in abeyance for 18 months. If you are ready to keep it in abeyance then why not repeal it…Go to Delhi’s borders.

    I will take you…meet the farmers and tell them you will repeal the Bills…become a statesman and win farmers’ trust….you have been PM twice,” he said and added that he was ready to take Modi to Singhu border for the announcement.

    Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been camping at Delhi’s borders seeking the repeal of the three agriculture laws.

    They claim that the new laws will weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system.

    But the government says the laws will only give farmers more options to sell their produce.