NEW DELHI: On the first day of Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Aam Aadmi Party raised issues such as allegations of spying on journalists and political leaders through Pegasus spyware and the protest by farmers against three agriculture laws enacted by the Centre last year.
While AAP MPs Sanjay Singh and Sushil Gupta raised the spying issue in the Rajya Sabha, party’s lone Lok Sabha MP, Bhagwant Mann took on the central government over farmers’ protest in the lower house of Parliament.
Singh served a notice in the House seeking suspension of business to discuss the controversy over spying of citizens through the Israeli spyware. Later, the AAP MPs held posters in the premises of Parliament shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his regime.
Meanwhile, MP Mann, who is from Punjab, where anger against the three farm laws is the highest, submitted an adjournment motion in the lower house. “It seems the welfare of farmers is not the agenda of Modi government anymore. Scores of farmers have been sitting at the entrances of Delhi for months protesting against these laws. Many have families with them. The Centre is not even willing to talk to them. This is very insensitive,” said Mann.
For several months now, large number of farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been protesting at Delhi borders demanding the rollback of three farm laws. Few rounds talks between the government and farmer unions have taken place in the past but no solution has been reached yet.
In Delhi, the AAP government has come out in full support of the protest and has been raising the matter inside the Parliament as well as on the streets. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has blamed both the BJP and the Congress for the laws. The issue is politically important for the Delhi’s ruling party as it is contesting Assembly elections in Punjab next year.