Opposition MPs protest in Parliament complex

New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) In the wake of passage of three agriculture-related Bills and other proposed legislations, lawmakers of the Congress and other opposition parties on Wednesday continued to protest in the Parliament complex here.

The protesting lawmakers marched from Gandhi’s statue to the Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue within the premises to register their protest while carrying placards.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “All MPs of the Congress and like-minded parties are marching from the Gandhi statue to the Ambedkar statue in Parliament to protest against anti-farmers and anti-workers Bills rubber-stamped in Parliament in the most undemocratic manner by the Modi government.”

Earlier, opposition leaders met in the chamber of Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and decided to continue their protest over the farm Bills.

The opposition and the government is at loggerheads ever since the two farm Bills were passed amid a ruckus in the Upper House on Sunday. The third contentious Bill on essential commodities was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

On Sunday, pandemonium broke out in the Upper House as the opposition protested over the two farm Bills. Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien even approached the Chair and tried to snatch a mike while citing the rule book.

When his objections were overruled, O’Brien allegedly tore the rule book and called the Bills “Kala Kanoon” or black laws. As the aides of the Deputy Chair, tried to shield Harivansh Narayan Singh, many opposition members reached the Well of the House to register their protest.

When the House met on Monday, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu suspended eight lawmakers — Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen of the Trinamool Congress, Rajeev Satav, Ripun Bora, and Syed Naseer Hussain of the Congress, Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party, and KK Ragesh and E Kareem of the CPI-M.

–IANS

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