PM Modi is against federal structure, says Digvijaya in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: Participating in the debate on motion of thanks to the President's address, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh on Thursday said the Prime Minister was against the federal structure as he imposed lockdown without consulting the states and without any prior notice.

"This House is the House of states and this is my allegation that the Prime Minister is against the Federal structure as he did not consult the Chief Ministers and imposed lockdown. Countries like Singapore gave eight-day prior notice."

The Congress leader also attacked BJP leader Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, how the covid threat was overlooked to pull down the MP government.

Digvijaya Singh said the government was now overlooking the farmers protest and asked why Rajnath Singh, who had been in the forefront of earlier farmer agitations, was not kept in the committee but Piyush Goyal, who has nothing to do with the farmers, has been.

He said ,"Dissent is essence of Democracy", and said that the dissenters are being booked in various cases and denied bail also.

Earlier during the debate, Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) started the discussion on the Motion of thanks. He said the government was trying to replicate the model of Bihar in Punjab and Haryana.

He said that in Bihar after the APMC Act was scrapped in 2006 the state has become a labour supply state as farmers have become labourers.

The RJD MP said the way farmers have been treated at Delhi borders should not have happened and stopping water and electricity was inhuman.

The MP said the government should listen to the farmers and withdraw the laws and the majority numbers should not be used to bulldoze the issue.