‘Will resign if farm laws not repealed by Jan 26’: INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala

In the resignation letter to the assembly Speaker, which he will hand over to protesting farmers, Chautala wrote, “If by 26th January the Centre does not take back the farm laws, then, this letter should be considered as my resignation from the state assembly.”

Indian National Lokdal (INLD) leader and MLA from Ellenabad in Haryana, Abhay Singh Chautala, said on Monday that he will resign as a member of the state assembly if the central government does not take back the three new farm laws by January 26. Chautala's announcement came on a day when the agitation against the laws - passed by Parliament in September last year - entered its 47th day.

Chautala also wrote to the Speaker that eight rounds of talks have so far taken place, but the government has not yet agreed to repeal these black laws. (Keshav Singh/HT)

In the resignation letter to the assembly Speaker, which he will hand over to protesting farmers, Chautala wrote, “If by 26th January the Centre does not take back the farm laws, then, this letter should be considered as my resignation from the state assembly.” He pointed out that over 60 farmers have died so far due to extreme weather conditions in and around the national capital.

Chautala also wrote to the Speaker that eight rounds of talks have so far taken place, but the government has not yet agreed to repeal these black laws. The INLD leader said that due to the current circumstances created by the government, he cannot protect the interests of the farmers as a member of the assembly.

Meanwhile, the Haryana Congress demanded a special assembly session to pass a resolution to repeal the farm laws with state unit chief Kumari Selja asking chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala to be "true representative of people" and talk about the concerns of farmers. She added that the Haryana Congress would gherao the Raj Bhawan on January 15 in solidarity with the farmers.

Ahead of the ninth round of talks between the government and the farmers on January 15, the Supreme Court pulled up the Centre on Monday for its handling of the protests against the new laws and said it was extremely disappointed with the way talks were going. The apex court added that it will set up a committee, which will be headed by a former chief justice of India (CJI) to resolve the deadlock.

“We are extremely disappointed with the negotiation process. We don’t want to make any stray observations on your negotiations but we are extremely disappointed with the process” a bench headed by CJI SA Bobde said. The bench further refused to grant any extra time to the Centre to explore the possibility of any friendly solution by saying that it had already granted a long rope to the government.