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Rajya Sabha: ‘Your 303 (seats) Didn’t Come From Cold Storages/ Godowns But From Farmers’, Says Manoj Jha

PTI |
Stop monologue, says Opposition, as it tears into BJP-led government’s handling of farmer protests.
Rajya Sabha: ‘Your 303 (seats) Didn’t Come From Cold Storages/ Godowns But From Farmers’, Says Manoj Jha

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha speaks at Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament. Image Courtesy: RSTV/PTI Photo

New Delhi: Opposition parties on Thursday tore into the government's handling of the farmer protest against three contentious farm reform laws, saying ministers believe in monologue and trenches have been dug, barbed wires put up and spikes installed when bridges should have been built to win over farmers.

Opening the second day of discussion on a motion thanking the President for his address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session, Manoj Kumar Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal said the government has lost patience to hear and any criticism is painted as anti-national.

"With folded hands, I request you to please understand the pain of farmers. In harsh winter you stopped water supply and toilet facilities, dug trenches, put barbed wires, and installed spikes," he said. "Such aggressive approach wasn't even heard of towards the neighbouring nations who came inside (the Indian territory)."

To the response to a tweet by pop star Rihanna on the farmer protest, he said the democracy will not be weakened by a tweet but by the approach of the government.

In a veiled reference to cold storage chain and godowns built by private corporates such as Adani Group, he said, "Your backbone is the farmer. 303 (seats won in last general elections) did not come from cold storage or godowns but from these very people."

"We will support you but every word against you is not anti-national. Patriotism is not be worn on sleeves but carried in heart," he said in his speech loaded with poetry and sarcasm.

Stating that protests and agitations are the lifeblood of democracy, he contested the government statement of 11 rounds of dialogue have concluded with agitating farmers, saying its ministers "believe in monologue and not dialogue."

"They talk of having given this and that to farmers, but there is no place for language of charity in a democracy. The monologues should be ended," he said.

Jha said critics and agitating farmers have been painted as 'Khalistani', 'Naxals' and Pakistani agents and its citizens pitted against each other just like the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"You have lost the patience of hearing, you only dictate," he said. "The governments are formed to build bridges but you have built walls."

Referring to the over two-month-long agitation by farmers on the border entry points to the national capital, he said trenches have been dug, barbed wires erected and spikes installed to cut off farmers.

"I haven't been to a border but pictures I have seen don't resemble anything close to what has been done around farmer agitation sites," he said, adding water supply as been snapped and toilets facilities taken away.

"Who are you fighting? They are your own farmers," he said. "The country is not made up of police, arm, Jan gan man and Vande Mataram. The country is made of relations and you have soiled those relations."

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