AAP stages protests in 9 states against the farm bills; vows to continue till rollback

Supporting the farmers, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers staged protests against the Centre's farm bills in 9 states. Sharing visuals of the protests in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Jharkhand, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, AAP vowed to continue protests till Centre withdraws these bills. Across India, farmers and several parties like RJD, Trinamool, Akali Dal held protests demanding rollback of the laws.

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AAP holds anti-farm bill protests in 9 states

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Farmers protests against the 3 bills

In the food bowl of India - Punjab and Haryana, 31 farmer organisations under aegis of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) staged a Bharat Bandh, taking to the streets to block highways. Farmers have already started a three-day rail blockade against the bills and squatted on tracks at many places in Punjab. Similar protests are currently underway in Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu with farmers demanding rollback of the bills. Prime Minister Modi has assured farmers that mandis and minimum sale price will remain, allaying the main concern of farmers and lashed out at the Opposition for 'spreading rumours'. 

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AAP's Rajya Sabha ruckus

While opposing the two bills in Rajya Sabha, AAP MP Sanjay Singh and Rajeev Satav stormed the well and stood on the table in front of the Chair and raised slogans like 'down with dictatorship', while clapping.  In other videos, Singh is also seen angrily manhandling a marshal by grabbing his neck when he tried to stop his path to the well, before TMC MP Derek O'Brien stopped Singh's path. The Rajya Sabha TV feed was temporarily cut off amid the chaos. Taking action, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu suspended 8 MPs - Trinamool's Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, AAP's Sanjay Singh, CPM's KK Ragesh and Elamaram Karim And Congress' Rajiv Satav and Syed Naseer Hussain for the remainder of the session.

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What are the three farm bills?

 As the country opened up after lockdown, the Centre promulgated three ordinances - Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 & The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm services ordinance, 2020. The amendment to the Essential Commodities act was to enable better price realisation for farmers by attracting investments - making agriculture sector competitive.  Agriculture foodstuff including cereals, edible oils, oilseeds, pulses, onions, and potato are to be deregulated while stock limits were to be imposed only under extreme conditions. Under the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm services ordinance, 2020, it provided a framework for the protection and empowerment of farmers with reference to the sale and purchase of farm products overriding all state APMC laws.