SAD-led 8-party delegation meets LS speaker, demands JPC on Tomar remark on farmer deaths

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday led an eight-party delegation to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla demanding that a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) be constituted to probe Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s assertion in Parliament that the Centre did not have any record of farmer deaths during the ongoing agitation

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday led an eight-party delegation to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla demanding that a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) be constituted to probe Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s assertion in Parliament that the Centre did not have any record of farmer deaths during the ongoing agitation.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal with Congress MPJasbir Singh Gill and others holding placards in support of the farmers’ protest at Parliament House in New Delhi on Friday. (ANI)

A representation was submitted to the Lok Sabha speaker by MPs representing the SAD, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI-M, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and National Conference.

Former Union minister and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal requested the representatives of all opposition parties, including the Congress, to join the delegation of MPs that will meet the President on Saturday demanding that he direct the Centre to discuss repeal of the three agriculture laws in Parliament.

Harsimrat said the MPs pointed out that the agriculture minister had committed a serious lapse by claiming that the government did not have any record of farmer deaths.

“This amounts to whitewashing the sacrifice of the ‘annadaata’ who has been agitating against the three laws for eight months. We are shocked that he said this despite there being clear proof of 537 farmers losing life during the protests,” she said.

The MPs also brought it to the notice of the speaker that the agriculture minister had gone on record to say that no study was conducted to understand the apprehensions among farmers about the three laws.