Bengaluru: A day after Janata Dal (Secular) forged an alliance with the BJP in Karnataka to wrest the Legislative Council Chairman post from Congress party, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda on Friday said he would not attend President Ram Nath Kovind’s joint address to Parliament in solidarity with the farmers agitating against the contentious farm laws.
“In solidarity with my farmer brothers fighting against the three #FarmLaws, I have decided, after consulting my party @JanataDal_S units, not to attend the President’s joint address of Parliament today,” the JD(S) supremo tweeted.
The opposition parties led by Congress and backed by the Left parties and a few regional parties decided on Thursday not to attend Kovind’s joint address.
The farm laws have been a bone of contention ever since they were was passed in Parliament by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government last year.
In opposition of these laws several farmers’ organisations have been agitating for the past two months.
As part of their protest, on January 26, the agitating farmers held a massive tractor rally in Delhi that turned violent as they rampaged through the city and one farmer was killed and several farmers and policemen were injured.
