Budget Session : Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day amid opposition protest over farm laws

Representative image.

The Rajya Sabha was on February 2 was adjourned till February 3 after members of the Opposition parties raised slogans demanding the suspension of the business of the day and take up discussions over the farmer's protest.

Members of opposition parties, including the Congress, the DMK, the TMC, and CPI (M), had moved adjournment notices in the upper house to suspend the business of the day to debate the three farm laws.  Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, however, rejected the notices saying that the house will take up the issue in its scheduled discussions over President's Address on February 3.

“I understand the concern the issue raised by the members. President has referred to farmers' protest in his address on January 29. We will discuss the President’s address tomorrow and members can take the opportunity," Naidu said.

A section of Opposition members walked out of the proceedings and the Question Hour started. In some time the members returned and started raising slogans in the house. Since the slogans didn't stop the Chairman adjourned the house till 10.30 am. The house assembled again only to be adjourned till 11.30 am, then again till 12.30 am when the deputy chairman adjourned it for the day.

This is the third business day of the ongoing budget session that started on January 29. The first two days which also saw the presentation of Budget 2021, passed off peacefully.

The Opposition, which boycotted the President's Address, has planned to corner the government on the issue of the three contentious farm laws.

President Ram Nath Kovind on January 29 condemned the violence during the tractor’s rally on Republic Day while asserting that with the new three agricultural reforms, the government has provided new facilities and rights to farmers.

Enacted in September 2020, the three laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector. But, thousands of protesting farmers, primarily from Punjab and Haryana, have been camping at several Delhi border points for over two months, demanding the repeal of the laws, and a legal guarantee on minimum support prices (MSP) for their crops.