Looking to recover their lost political ground, Opposition parties are seeing an opportunity to resurge at the national level after the drubbing in previous Lok Sabha election as 14 political parties have given support to the Bharat Bandh called by farmers Union on December 8 to pressurize Union Government for repealing the three new farming laws.
The 14 opposition parties namely Congress, DMK, NCP, Samajwadi Party, CPI, AIUDF, Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Loktantric Party of Rajasthan have all expressed solidarity with the call of Bharat Bandh, despite the fact that many of them, Congress, in particular, had demanded the same laws or have them in their election manifesto.
Opposition parties claimed the new laws endager nation’s food security, destroy agriculture and farmers and set the ball rolling for the complete abolishment of minimum support price. The farming laws were passed without any discussion or voting. The laws will leave agriculture sector to the mercy of big Corporates.
Even National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav have also called for meeting the demands of farmers. Meanwhile, farmer unions are trying to rope in more of unions from other states.
The farmer leaders remained headstrong on their demand of complete repealing of farm laws through a special Parliament session even when Union Government has agreed to make amendments in problematic provisions and even make a provision to make MSP legally binding.
A number of trade unions such as Indian National Trade Union Congress, Trade Union Coordination Centre, All India Trade Union Congress, Centre for Indian Trade Unions and Hind Mazdoor Sabha have also given support under the banner of a joint forum of trade unions.
Also, the bank unions like All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) have also urged Government to engage in constructive dialogue to end the impasse.
