Congress Launches ‘Mass Movement’ Against Farm Bills

The Congress has launched its nearly two-month-long "mass movement" against the government for passing "anti-farmer and anti-poor" bills during the monsoon session of Parliament from Thursday.

The party also aims to collect two crore signatures from protesting farmers against the proposed laws.

The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, have been passed by both the Houses of Parliament during the monsoon session and await Presidential assent.

The Rajya Sabha (RS) witnessed ruckus during the passage of two of the three bills on Sunday following which eight members – Rajeev Satav, Syed Nasir Hussain and Ripun Bora of the Congress, Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), KK Ragesh and Elamaram Kareem of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – were suspended for the remainder of the monsoon session.

The session ended on Wednesday, eight days ahead of the October 1 schedule, amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

The decision by the Congress to hit the streets was taken at a meeting of general secretaries and in-charge of states at the party headquarters in Delhi on Monday.

The six-member special committee formed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to help her in organisational and operational matters chaired the meeting in her absence. AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, KC Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik and Randeep Singh Surjewala are members of the special committee.

The Congress will observe Kisan-Mazdoor Bachao Divas on October 2 on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

On October 10, state-level conferences will be held and from October 2 to October 31, the party will collect signatures from two crore farmers from across the country.

On November 14, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, a memorandum along with signatures of two crore farmers will be submitted to President Kovind.