Cong stages walkout in Gujarat Assembly over farmers' stir

Gandhinagar, March 23 The opposition Congress on Tuesday staged a walkout in the Gujarat assembly after its proposal to observe two minutes silence as a mark of respect to the farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protest along Delhi's borders, was rejected by the Speaker.

After paying tributes to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on the occasion of Martyrs' Day, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani also put forward a proposal for observing two minutes silence as a mark of respect to the farmers who died at Delhi's borders. The farmers have been agitating for over a hundred days against the three new farm laws brought by the Central government.

On this, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said: "We respect the death of the three Martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country and we agree with the respect shown to them in the House but using this to colour it politically should not be allowed."

He also referred to the Congress government in 1987 and the firing on 19 farmers then and also presented a newspaper clipping of that incident.

Following this, the opposition Congress members started shouting and chanting slogans against the BJP government.

The Congress than staged a walkout.

"I asked the House to observe 2 minutes silence for the deceased farmers which the House didn't agree with. This is an insult to all the Martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country," Dhanani told the media after the walkout.

( With inputs from IANS )