Farmers' death at Delhi borders: SAD flays Tomar's statement in Parliament, seeks apology

The SAD on Saturday sought an apology from Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar for saying in Parliament that his government has no record of farmers who died at Delhi borders during the course of the agitation against the Centre's farm laws. Tomar had made the statement on Friday. Farmers have been camping at Delhi borders since late November, demanding the repeal of the laws.

Former Union minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal expressed shock at the statement and said, “This anti-farmer attitude of the NDA government is responsible for the plight of farmers who have not only been stonewalled for eight months but even their deaths are not being recognised.” “The SAD condemns this anti-human attitude and requests the agriculture minister to apologise to farmers for this statement and assure the country that the 'annadaata' will not be humiliated in this manner again in Parliament,” she said in a statement, adding that the government refused to recognise the death of over 550 farmers by ''feigning ignorance”.

The SAD leader said the NDA government had also made it clear in Parliament that it was functioning in a “dictatorial manner” and had not even cared to conduct any study to ascertain the apprehensions in minds of farmers about the three farm laws.

“Tomar's assertion that no study has been conducted on this issue proves that this government is committed to fulfilling its pact with the corporations and will not even take any feedback from farmers on the three farm laws. This is against the very essence of democracy,” said the Bathinda MP.

The SAD leader demanded that the government drop this “intransigent” attitude and take into account the objections raised by farmers.

“If the government does this, it will automatically understand the need to repeal the three black laws and will not keep demanding that the farmers discuss the provisions of the three laws,” she said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)