The Haryana Assembly on Monday passed a resolution to condemn the boycott of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Jannayak Janata party (BJP-JJP) leaders and legislators in different parts of Haryana by the local residents and supporters of farmers protesting against the BJPled Centre’s controversial farm laws for months.
During the ongoing budget session of the Haryana Assembly, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar moved a single line resolution that if any section or organisation of the society announced to boycott any political party or its leaders, then the House will condemn it.
The CM while moving the resolution said that voting would be carried out in this regard if required but the resolution was passed by voice vote in the House. He said that the responsibility of the ruling party is as much as that of the Opposition for the protection of democracy.
Since November 2020, when farmers intensified their protests against the Centre’s farm legislations and blocked Delhi’s borders, several ruling BJP and JJP leaders in Haryana have been facing protests across the state from the local people who have been backing protesting farmers.
In several incidents, Chief Minister Khattar, deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and several other leaders of the BJP and the JJP have not been allowed entry by the people into their villages. Amid the apprehensions of a law-andorder disruption, the ruling BJP-JJP alliance had to even change the venues of various official functions on the occasion of the Republic Day.
The Haryana BJP and the JJP are widely seen to be in favour of the Narendra Modi government’s three contentious agriculture laws.
In the House today, a visibly angry CM Khattar raised the issue after the Question Hour got concluded and demanded that Opposition leaders should also condemn such boycott incidents.
“If any faction of society, any organisation talks about boycotting leaders of any political party, this House proposes to condemn it,” Khattar said.
The resolution was read out by the Speaker and subsequently passed by the House by voice vote.
The members of the principal Opposition Congress, however, staged a walkout refusing to accept the resolution that was mooted without any prior notice.
Without naming anybody, Khattar said there were several people, including a few from the Congress who, were allegedly instigating people to do so. Calling it a “murder of democracy” and a dangerous trend against the principles of a democratic set-up, Khattar demanded that the House should pass a resolution condemning all such incidents of boycott of elected representatives.
The Leader of the Opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, clarified that no legislator of the Congress party was instigating any organisation or class to boycott political leaders.
“I would like to clarify one thing on the floor of the House that nobody from my party is instigating anybody. This is your misconception. We had been supporting their (farmers) demands and we shall keep doing so,” Hooda asserted.