Opposition MPs stopped from meeting protesting farmers at Delhi's Ghazipur

A group of Opposition Members of Parliament on Thursday drove to the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh Ghazipur border to meet the farmers who have been protesting against the farm laws enacted by the Centre.

Fifteen MPs including DMK’s Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva, NCP’s Supriya Sule, Akali Dal leader and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Trinamool’s Saugata Ray, RSP’s N K Premachandran, travelled in a bus to the Ghazipur border, about 18 km from Parliament.

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The MPs were stopped by the police at the barricades erected at the border to prevent a repeat of the January 26 violence during a tractor rally carried out by the farmers’ organisations who have been protesting against the farm laws here since November 26.

“The farmers have been protesting for 70 days. The Central government should come forward to listen to their grievances and find a satisfactory solution,” NCP member Supriya Sule said.

“We were forced to alight 3 km from the site of the peaceful protest. We are determined to see the conditions first hand and force the government into action,” Badal, who was the Union Food Processing Minister, told reporters.

Badal said the Opposition leaders were shocked to see the treatment meted to the farmers, who have been barricaded behind fortress-like concrete barriers and barbed wire fencing.

“Even ambulances and fire brigade vehicles cannot enter the protest site,” she said.

The issue of farmers’ protests has rocked Parliament with the opposition seeking to corner the government during the Budget Session, While the government has managed to begin a discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, it is engaged in resolving the deadlock in the Lok Sabha.

The main Opposition Congress has been insisting on a separate discussion on the farmers' issue after the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address. The government has rejected the demand, contending that the issue can be raised during the debate on the Motion of Thanks.

The group of MPs also met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and handed over a memorandum detailing their "bitter experience" at the Ghazipur border.

"The impression we got at the Delhi-Ghazipur border is like the border between India and Pakistan," the MPs said in the memorandum to the Speaker.