The Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 9 am on Wednesday after the opposition MPs protested over the farm laws. The upper house of the Parliament faced repeated adjournments since the parliamentary proceeding began this morning.
Members of CPM, BSP, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) among others, issued a suspension of business notice in Rajya Sabha to discuss the farmers’ issues. RS Chairman Venkaiah Naidu rejected the opposition’s demand for discussion. However, he asked the opposition to conduct discussions on the issues on Wednesday. The opposition was not happy and staged a walkout.
Meanwhile, the farmer leaders have hit out the Centre after nearly 2,000 iron nails were cemented in rows on the Rohtak road on Tikri border. Makeshift walls and metal barricades were also raised at different borders of Delhi following the Republic Day violence. The walls, barricades and nails were placed at the border to prevent protestors from entering into Delhi. The farmer leaders slammed the government, saying that “no formal talks will place until the harassment ends”.
The farmer leaders announced that they will be blocking the national and state highways across the country on February 6. While making the announcement, Punjab's Bharatiya Kisan Union's head Balbir Singh Rajewal accused the government of suppressing the farmers' protest by blocking the roads around the protest sites, suspending Internet connection and snapping the water and power supply at three protest sites. He said that trains were being diverted to prevent the farmers from reaching the protest sites. "Twitter accounts of those supporting the protest were blocked and, journalists were being taken into custody," he said.
While addressing a joint press conference along with Samyukt Kisan Morcha, farmers' body, he said, "It has, therefore, been decided to block highways for three hours on February 6 in the afternoon in protest against the repressive measures of the government. It was also discussed at the meeting that the budgetary allocation to agriculture has been reduced."
On Monday, the Punjab Mail carrying 1,000 farmers towards Delhi was diverted. Railway officials told reporters that due to "operational constraints", the train was diverted. When news broke about the Punjab Mail train, many netizens began speculating that the train was diverted on purpose to prevent these farmers from reaching the protest sites in Delhi. The train starts from Firozpur in Punjab, then stops at Rohtak and then enters Delhi. However, on Monday, the train did not stop in Delhi, instead, it headed towards Rewari in Haryana and then proceeded westwards towards Mumbai. Activists Yogendra Yadav tweet that the Ferozpur-Mumbai-Punjab mail train diverted from Rohtak to Rewari.
Since November 26, farmers have been protesting against the three contentious farm laws passed in the Parliament last September. Violence broke out on Republic Day where nearly 300 police personnel were injured. Tensions have risen between farmers and the government.
