RS session over, suspended MPs talk of taking protest to home states

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New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) The suspended MPs who are going back to their states after the Upper House adjourned sine die on Wednesday promised to scale up their protest when they reach their home states.

"Yes, our suspension was a murder of democracy. But the bigger issue at hand is the anti-farmer agri bills passed by the Centre. The merit of this issue has reached another level. Protests and agitations will spread across states, districts, fields and farmlands of India," TMC MP Dola Sen told IANS. She was one among the 8 Rajya Sabha members who was suspended for creating a ruckus in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday.

The CPI-M's Elamaram Karim, another suspended MP who hails from the Left ruled Kerala, said "The undemocratic behaviour and anti-people policies of the Modi government will be exposed in public."

Karim, who was part of the unprecedented overnight sit-in protest in front of Parliament's iconic Gandhi statue, said that the "fight" is far from over and will intensify in the coming days.

The TMC's Derek O'Brien who has made his Twitter DP scream "You can suspend me, you cannot silence me" has already spoken to his party leader Mamata Banerjee about the developments in Delhi and the party is preparing to stage elaborate protests in West Bengal, where it is in power. Banerjee said that the fight will continue against the "fascist government in Parliament and on the streets". O'Brien and Sen are both likely to take the lead along with Banerjee.

Another suspended MP, AAP's Sanjay Singh who earlier accepted that he broke a microphone in the House, is upping the ante in UP. The Delhi based party which is making a foray in Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Singh, has now confirmed that the AAP will throw its weight behind the farmers stir in the state on September 25.

Rajiv Satav who was recently in the news for reportedly challenging party seniors in favour of Rahul Gandhi said the protests ahead will be two- pronged -- through parliamentary means and street agitations. He too was among the 8 MPs suspended following Sunday's ruckus. "Sansad se sadak tak ye ladai ladi jayegi," he says.

In Maharashtra, where he hails from and where the Congress is in power along with the NCP and the Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar's NCP is believed to be drawing up a plan for an agitation.

Dola Sen gives the macro picture when she says, "The matter has reached another level now. When senior leaders like Sharad Pawar fast and Ghulam Nabi Azad protests, it's a sign that there will be many farmers protests in state after state, across the country."

With the Indian Youth Congress protesting in Haryana's Panipat on Wednesday, another tractor rally near Ambala being stopped earlier and many more planned in the coming days, the Centre has a lot on its plate.

--IANS

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