CHANDIGARH: AAP MP Bhagwant Mann and SAD lawmaker Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday slammed the BJP-led central government for not convening Parliament's winter session, saying the Centre was "running away" from its responsibility to resolve grievances of farmers.
Mann said the Centre was trying to "run away" from discussing "anti-farmer" agri laws which have led to the farmers' protest, while Badal described the government's move as "murder of democracy".
Badal, who had resigned as union minister over the farm laws issue, demanded that a special one-day session be held at the earliest to repeal the three laws as per the wishes of the farming community.
She said the government was "running away" from its responsibility to resolve the grievances of farmers by repealing the three agricultural marketing laws.
"The Centre knows that it is in the wrong. It knows it has legislated on agriculture which is a state subject and that farmers of all states have rejected the three Acts it bulldozed through in the last season. It knows it cannot face the people on this issue and that is why it has invented the excuse of COVID-19 to cancel the winter session of Parliament," the Bathinda MP said in a statement.
She said parliamentarians had been denied an opportunity to raise the voice of the farmers.
"The farmers are suffering untold hardship in biting cold wave conditions and parliamentarians wanted to highlight this. They also wanted to put pressure on the government to repeal the three farm laws which have been rejected by the farmers. There is no reason to keep laws in force which the people do not want," she said.
Mann alleged that instead of answering core issues concerning the farmers in Parliament, the Modi government has decided not to convene the winter session citing the pandemic.
"The Modi government is shying away from discussing the issues of import threadbare, including the anti-farmer agriculture laws, which led to the farmers' agitation," the Sangrur MP was quoted as saying in a statement here.
"Ever since the Modi government came to power, it has a track record of always running away from answering questions relating to the public at large," he alleged The government has said that the winter session of Parliament will not be held this year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and that it will be appropriate to convene the budget session in January.