Thousands of farmers in various parts of the country launched rallies and sit-ins to protest the controversial farm bills. Massive protests are taking place in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka. The farmers blocked highways, railways tracks and have warned the government that they will intensify the agitation if the bills are not repealed. They fear the bills will put the small and marginal farmers at major risk.<\/p>\n
Apart from the farmers, several Opposition political parties including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, RJD and 10 central trade unions have supported the farmers\u2019 agitation. In various parts of the country \u2013 including in West Bengal \u2013 Trinamool Congress, Congress and the Left parties have also launched protests to oppose the bills.<\/p>\n
There is a \u201ccomplete shutdown\u201d call in Punjab which has been announced by 31 farmers\u2019 groups. The Congress-led government has announced its support for the farmers and that no complaints will be lodged against the protestors. Farmers are also protesting along the Faridkot-Kotapura highway and the Delhi-Amritsar highway. A \u201crail roko\u201d agitation that started in Amritsar on Thursday is continuing on Friday. A road in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Noida that borders Delhi also has a farmers\u2019 gathering.<\/p>\n
In West Bengal, the Left parties have taken out rallies. The Trinamool Congress has been holding protests and sit-ins in various parts of the state for the past three days.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reiterated that the bills are \u201chistoric\u201d and accused the Opposition political parties of misleading the farmers. Addressing a virtual meeting of BJP leaders, Modi said the small and marginal farmers would benefit from the reforms.<\/p>\n
The Rajya Sabha has cleared the Farmers\u2019 and Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, by a voice vote. The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the third ordinance, which is part of the Centre\u2019s farm liberalisation policies, has not been passed yet.<\/p>\n
On Sunday and Monday, there were protests in the Rajya Sabha and the third ordinance could not be taken up. All the three ordinances were passed in the Lok Sabha on September 18.<\/p>\n
Opposition political parties have appealed to President Ram Nath Kovind to stop clearing the bills that are waiting his approval.<\/p>\n
Eight MPs of the Opposition including Trinamool Congress\u2019 Derek O\u2019Brien, Dola Sen, Congress\u2019 Rajeev Satav, CPM\u2019s KK Ragesh and Aam Admi Party\u2019s Sanjay Singh were suspended from the Rajya Sabha on Monday for \u201cunruly\u201d behaviour in the House on Sunday when the controversial bills were being passed.<\/p>\n
[Image: CPIM West Bengal Facebook]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several political parties in the Opposition are also holding protests and rallies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":10476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[57,47,84,424,454,219,268,462,463,436,92,252,174,46,108],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-bengal","8":"category-nation","9":"tag-bjp","10":"tag-congress","11":"tag-cpim","12":"tag-derek-obrien","13":"tag-farm-bills","14":"tag-farmers","15":"tag-farmers-union","16":"tag-haryana","17":"tag-karnataka","18":"tag-members-of-parliament","19":"tag-narendra-modi","20":"tag-parliament","21":"tag-punjab","22":"tag-trinamool-congress","23":"tag-west-bengal-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10475"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=10475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}