Shiromani Akali Dal, NCP, Shiv Sena and some other opposition parties, including the Left parties, have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe to ascertain the details of farmer deaths during the "Kisan Andolan" against three agriculture laws.
In a letter to the speaker, leaders of various parties, including SAD, Shiv Sena, NCP, BSP, JKNC, RLP, CPI and CPI-M, have urged his intervention in the matter.
The letter came in the wake of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar's statement that the Centre has no knowledge of farmer deaths.
The Opposition leaders said the minister's statement has hurt the sentiments of the farming community across the country and he should apologise as he has insulted the farmers.
They said Mr Tomar has stated in Parliament that the Centre does not have any record of the farmers who died during the ongoing Kisan Andolan at Delhi's borders.
The farmers have been protesting against three agriculture laws of the Centre and demanding their scrapping since November last year.
Leaders of SAD and other parties are set to meet the president in this regard on Saturday morning.
"It is shocking that the ''annadaata'' was subjected to this insult, despite clear-cut recorded proof of hundreds of farmers being martyred during the Kisan Andolan. It is even more appalling that the agriculture minister has gone on record to say that neither a study has been conducted to verify the numbers of these farmer deaths nor a study to understand the apprehensions in the minds of farmers regarding the three farm laws," the leaders said.
They said this is a very serious lapse on the part of the minister and alleged that "he has, in fact, misled the nation".
"We urge you to ask the minister to apologise to the farming community for his intemperate remarks that have hurt their self-respect."
"We urge you to form a Joint Parliamentary Committee led by an Opposition member to probe the entire issue and ascertain details of the total number of lives lost in the ongoing Kisan Andolan and suggest ways and means to rehabilitate the victim families," the Opposition leaders said.
The JPC could also take feedback directly from farmers and their representatives about their reservations vis-a-vis the three agriculture laws and submit the same to the government for necessary action, they said in their letter.
The leaders hoped that the insult meted out to farmers and their democratic protest is addressed through the speaker's intervention, which will send out a clear signal that the temple of democracy stands with the "annadaata" and will not take any insult heaped on him.
Among the signatories to the letter were Harsimrat Kaur Badal (SAD), Supriya Sule (NCP), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena), Danish Ali (BSP), Hanuman Beniwal (RLP), P R Natarajan (CPI-M), M Selvaraj (CPI) and Hasnain Masoodi (JKNC).
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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