Kerala Assembly passes unanimous resolution against central farm laws
Thiruvananthapuram: Expressing solidarity with the agitating farmers in Delhi, the Kerala Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of the three contentious central laws, saying they were "anti-farmer" and "pro-corporate" and would push the farming community into a deep crisis.
In a rare gesture, not only the legislators of the ruling CPI(M)-headed LDF and Congress-led UDF, but the lone BJP member in the 140-member state Assembly, O Rajagopal, also supported the resolution against the Centre, saying "it is the democratic spirit."
However, Rajagopal opposed some of the references in the resolution, which was presented in a nearly two-hour-long special session convened in compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
Moving the resolution, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the central laws have been amended to help the corporates.
The Centre had presented and passed the three agriculture laws in Parliament at a time when the agriculture sector was facing a severe crisis, he said.
"The three contentious agri laws were passed even without sending them to the standing committee of Parliament. If this agitation continues, it will severely affect Kerala, which is a consumer state," he said.
Stating that the reforms in the field of agriculture should be implemented as carefully envisioned, he said with the implementation of the laws, the bargaining power of farmers would be weakened, giving an advantage to the corporate sector.
The laws did not have any provision to ensure legal protection for farmers, Vijayan said adding that they do not have the capacity to wage a legal battle with the corporates for this.
It was clear that the major cause of the agitation was the possible price drop for agriculture products due to these laws, he added.
As agriculture is the state subject and it is an issue which directly affects the states, the Union Government should have convened the meetings of the inter-state committees and held detailed consultations, he said.
"So, the Kerala Assembly requests the Centre to accept the justifiabledemands raised by farmers, who are the backbone of the country, and take immediate steps to withdraw the three controversial farm laws," the Chief Minister added.
The session was heldafter Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had in an unprecedented action earlier turned down the plea of the LDF government to convene a special session on December 23 to discuss the contentious laws saying Chief Minister Vijayan had not addressed the question raised by him on the nature of emergency warranting the very brief session.
Law Minister A K Balan and Agricultural Minister V S Sunil Kumar, had met Khan on Friday last after the state government decided afresh to convene a one day session on December 31 to discuss and pass a resolution against the farm laws.
Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, who is in quarantine after recovering from COVID-19, was not present in the House. In his reply,senior congress leader K C Joseph (Congress) attacked the Governor for not convening the house on December 23.
Joseph said though the Governor's act was a challenge to democracyas a recommendation of a majority government had not been accepted, "what surprised us was the cold response of the government to the Governor's action".
Two ministers were then sent with Christmas cake to the Raj Bhavan and they pleaded before the Governor to convene the session, he charged.
Joseph said the controversial laws were passed by the Centre 100 days ago and some state governments,including Punjab, had already passed a resolution against it and broughtin a legislation.
The state government should have brought in a legislation and passed a resolution, he said adding the three laws were unconstitutional and against the federal structure as states were not consulted.
Raising objections, the BJP legislator, Rajagopal said those who oppose the central laws were the ones who oppose farmers.
"The Congress had mentioned this law in their election manifesto before. The new law is meant to double the income of farmers," he said during the discussion.
However, he did not object to it when the Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan put the resolution for voice vote.
"The resolution was passed unanimously. I have told my views... with regard to some matters (in the resolution) there was a difference of opinion, which I had pointed to in the House. I fully support the resolution," Rajagopal told mediapersons after the session.
When pointed again that the resolution was for scrapping the three central farm laws, Rajagopal said he supported it (resolution).
"I supported the resolution and the central government should withdraw the three farm laws," the senior BJP leader said, adding he agreed with the general consensus in the House.
Though the UDF demanded an amendment to the resolution strongly criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was allegedly not ready to hold talks with the agitating farmers, the House rejected it.
Replying to the opposition charges, the Chief Minister said there was enough reference in the resolution against the union government, which was against the Prime Minister also.
Vijayan also said the state was exploring possibilities to bring legislation to overcome the central farm laws.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
