Congress calls for Parliament special session on farmers’ issues, recommends same to Punjab

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday demanded the convening of a special session of the Parliament to discuss the pressing issues of farmers for which they have once again started an agitation from Punjab.

The party also urged the Punjab government to convene a similar session of the Punjab State Assembly to discuss and deliberate on the issue.

Farmers’ union condemns killing of young farmer

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, chairman of the All India Kisan Congress Sukhpal Singh Khaira condemned the ‘brutal and barbaric’ use of force by the Haryana government on farmers that has already led to the death of one young farmer.

Khaira asked why the Punjab government had not registered an FIR so far over the killing of a farmer in its territory. He said the Haryana Police were violating the Punjab borders and shelling the farmers inside the Punjab territory with tear gas and rubber pallets. He said, about 200 farmers have been injured so far since February 12 when the protests started.

‘Haryana police detains farmers without relief’

The Kisan Congress chairman said that it appeared to be a joint operation by the Haryana chief minister ML Khattar and the Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann against the farmers.

Khaira said, besides the death of one farmer, some more farmers were missing or had been detained by the Haryana Police. He apprehended that there was uncertainty about the fate of another farmer who had been missing since Wednesday.

The Congress leader condemned the Government of India for recommending the closure of various social media handles, which were supportive of the farmers’ cause. At the same time, he added, it was ironic that the same government was patronising and promoting all those handles, which were spreading hate and spewing venom against the farmers.

‘Stop social media handles from spreading hate’

He asked what stopped the Punjab chief minister from getting the internet in various districts of the state restored. He said this would help in preventing rumour-mongering. Besides, he asked the chief minister to recommend the suspension of all the social media handles, which were spreading hatred against the farmers.

Supporting the demand of the farmers, Khaira also questioned the claims of the government that an assured MSP would lead to a burden of Rs 10 lakh crores. Quoting a CRISIL report, he said, the actual amount to pay the MSP for different crops comes to just Rs 21,000 crores only which is not a huge amount for the government of India which has waived off corporate loans to the tune of Rs 15 lakh crores.