SAD-BSP MPs hand over wheat stalks to parliamentarians

New Delhi: In a unique protest, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MPs on Monday handed over wheat stalks to parliamentarians to highlight the plight of the thousands of farmers who are leading a peaceful protest on the borders of Delhi and seek justice for them.

Former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who was leading the protest, offered the wheat stalks to NDA ministers and MPs and asked them to introspect about the treatment being meted to the farmers by the Union government.

While the ministers did not accept the wheat stalks, many MPs not only accepted them but some like Rama Devi even put the wheat stalks on their forehead as a mark of devotion.

Addressing the media, Harsimrat Badal said: "If we are partaking our daily bread, we have only farmers to thank. It is shocking that a community to which everyone is beholden is being persecuted by the Union government which refuses to repeal the three black agriculture laws.

"Today we distributed wheat stalks to MPs to appeal to the conscience of our policy makers to be just to the hand that feeds them."

She said it was condemnable that the Union government had "shut its eyes to the suffering" of farmers camped on the borders with Delhi for the past eight months.

She said the SAD-BSP parliamentarians had been demanding a discussion on the need for repeal of the three farm laws since the first day of the start of the Monsoon session.

"We moved repeated adjournment motions. But all were disallowed. This government is not ready to listen to the voice of the farmers and this is why we have been protesting in solidarity with farmers outside parliament every day. We will continue our protest till the black laws are not repealed."

Harsimrat Badal also condemned the attempts being made by the Centre to not only defame the Kisan Andolan but also belittle the sacrifices made by farmers for this cause.

She said farmers were being bad mouthed and referred to as "terrorists" and "mawalis", "simply because they were standing up to the sinister conspiracy to hand over the agricultural economy to corporates".

The Bathinda MP also condemned assertion of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, saying the Centre did not have any record of any farmer deaths during the ongoing agitation.

"This despite the fact that it is in public realm that 537 farmers have lost their lives during the course of the ongoing protest," she added.