SC farm panel perceived as not 'independent', says Congress leader BK Chandrashekar

Commenting on the resignation of farmer leader Bhupinder Singh Mann from the four-member panel set up by the Supreme Court to review farm laws, senior Congress leader B K Chandrashekar said that it was in response to the perception that the panel was not 'independent'.

All four have publicly supported the farm laws on different grounds, Chandrashekar said, noting that two of them were "office-bearers of farmers’ unions, but not part of the protest. In what sense then is it an 'independent' panel? How will other "sensible" and reputed experts testify before a panel whose credibility in public perception has come under cloud?" he said.

The Supreme Court, he said, perhaps had two options once it "decided to step into the policy domain: to appoint those who, at least, had not taken a public stand on the laws or to have two supporters and two who were not in favour of the laws, and have a credible person head the panel, given that its report was not binding," he said in a statement.