Bhopal: In a unique protest, Congress lawmakers in Madhya Pradesh sat on a hunger strike inside the state Assembly for almost 72 hours after the government rejected their demand for a discussion on the farmers hit by unseasonal rain.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had called for a special one-day session of the Assembly on Tuesday to discuss the supplementary Budget. The Opposition Congress demanded a discussion on the farmers' condition but the state government refused after which the 34 lawmakers of the Congress decided to stage a sit-in inside the Well of the House.
"We demand from the state government that the government should give the farmers their compensation which has been due for 2 years now. And also this year the farmers should be exempted from paying electricity bills as they have no money right now," Leader of Opposition Satyadev Katare told NDTV.
The hunger strike was started by seven law-makers on Wednesday; two of them fell ill on Friday and had to be rushed to the hospital. Later in the day, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh came to the Assembly and offered juice to those on hunger strike thereby ending their protest.
"If you think that by our strike nothing happened then you are wrong. Check in villages and there is a buzz about our party fighting for their rights inside the Vidhan Sabha. This of course was the first phase of the protest, the second phase in which our MLAs will join the fight of the farmers by going to their villages will follow soon," said Mr Singh.
The ruling BJP, meanwhile, neither met the protesting MLAs nor did they try getting the Vidhan Sabha forcefully evacuated. They say the Congress is trying to cash in on the issue and make a comeback in the state.
"We would have been glad to see the Congress fighting for the rights of the farmers by being with them in the villages and farm lands. But the Congress chose a shortcut. They chose to sit on a protest inside the well of the Assembly which is an air conditioned hall, which has a canteen. They took the easy way to make headlines and they have cheated the farmers by doing this," Dr Hitesh Vajpayee, in charge of Madhya Pradesh BJP media cell, told NDTV.