Eight opposition MPs, who were suspended from the Parliament after unruly scenes amid passage of the contested agricultural bills, held an overnight sit-in in the premises of the Parliament; NDTV reported that the suspended MPs spread out sheets in the Parliament lawn and staged a sit-in, holding up placards against the Centre's legislation.
Earlier in the day, the government moved a motion seeking the suspension of Derek O'Brien (TMC), Sanjay Singh (AAP), Rajeev Satav (Congress), K.K. Ragesh (CPI-M), Syed Nazir Hussain (Congress), Ripun Boren (Congress), Dola Sen (TMC) and Elamaram Kareem (CPI-M). The motion was adopted by voice vote amid protests.
"We would like the government to know that this is an indefinite protest," O'Brien said. AAP's Sanjay Singh said, "We will continue protesting against the farmer bills until the Modi government provides a rationale behind passing these bills without having the required votes".
To show solidarity with their protesting colleagues, senior opposition leaders came in hordes, including NC leader Faroukh Abdullah, JD(S)'s Deve Gowda, Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan, Congress' Ahmed Patel and NCP's Praful Patel. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh sat with the protesting parliamentarians for almost four hours.
"This is the first time ever that a peaceful overnight protest in front of Gandhi statue in Parliament has happened," protesting TMC MP Dola Sen said. "This is also the first time that members were openly robbed of their right as MPs to ask for a division [not just a voice vote]," she said.
An ambulance was also on standby for emergency use in case any of the protestors fell ill. News agency PTI reported that the the protesting MPs carried not just their beddings with pillows and blankets, but mosquito repellents as well.
Upping the ante on the farm bills issue, the Congress on Monday announced a massive people's movement which would include protest marches, agitations and collecting two crore farmers' signatures for a memorandum against the legislations to be submitted to President Ram Nath Kovind. This was decided at a meeting of Congress general secretaries and state in-charges, the first physical meeting held by the party at its 24 Akbar Road headquarters here since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A resolution hitting out at the three farm bills—the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020—was also passed at the meeting. The opposition parties had alleged in the Parliament the new laws will undermine the safety net provided to the farmers by the MSP system and will lead to their exploitation by big companies. They alleged that the Centre brought in the legislations without consulting the states under whose domain agriculture and mandis fall.
-Inputs from PTI
