NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha is set to witness noisy scenes on Sunday as three contentious farm Bills will come up for discussion and voting. While the Centre is reaching out to regional parties to muster support, the Opposition wants the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and the Farm Services Bill and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill — to be referred to a select committee.
Though the Centre hopes the legislative proposals will sail through, it is going to be a numbers game as some regional parties have not indicated which way they will vote. Plus, around two dozen Rajya Sabha members are absent on health grounds, which will bring down the strength of the House. The BJP has issued a whip to its MPs to be present on Sunday. In the House of 245 with two vacancies, the NDA has 111 while the Opposition has around 100. The BJD, the YSR Congress, and the AIADMK are likely to extend support to the Centre but NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal has announced it is not on the same page.
Considering the far-reaching impact of the proposed laws on the farming community, the Opposition wants the Bills to be discussed threadbare and states’ inputs also be taken into account, as agriculture is a state subject. Congress leader K C Venugopal has submitted a notice to the Rajya Sabha secretariat to refer the Bill to the select committee. A few other MPs have also given similar notices.
The Congress has appealed to other opposition parties to vote against the Bill. It has also called a meeting of its all general secretaries, state in-charges and the six-member advisory committee to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to discuss the course of action. Other opposition parties are also shaping strategy to oppose the Bills. Claiming the Bills undermine the food security system, Congress leader P Chidambaram urged Opposition parties to collectively oppose them so that they do not become law in their present form.