NEW DELHI: Even as Congress and other parties latched on to Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar’s statement on Tuesday that farmers were in distress, Dhankhar turned down the opposition’s adjournment notices on the farmers’ issue in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday and accused them of doing “drama” by pointing out that not a single adjournment notice submitted to him in the past five days was on farmers.
Stating that he had carefully gone through each and every notice sent to him under Rule 267, Dhankhar said not a single one was on farmers. “You are raising it (the farmers’ issue) only now,” he told opposition MPs even as they stood in the aisle demanding that they be allowed to speak on farmers’ issues, including their demand for minimum support price.
As the RS chairman declined, there was sloganeering by Congress functionaries including Randeep Surjewala, who was flanked by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and others.
Aam Aadmi Party and Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs too joined the protests, even as Trinamool and SP stayed in their seats.
Allowed by Dhankhar to speak, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said “the ‘annadata’ farmer was braving batons”. “Grant their MSP demand. Now even constitutional authorities are endorsing this demand,” he said in an apparent reference to Dhankhar’s comments on Tuesday.
As Dhankhar cut short Tiwari, Ramesh turned to the chair and said, “We are only supporting you.”
When the chairman did not allow further discussion on the farmers’ issue, Congress and some other opposition MPs staged a walkout. They were, however, not joined by Trinamool, SP and AAP members.
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