16 Rajya Sabha MPs move 118 amendments to President Ram Nath Kovind's Budget session address

Sixteen MPs have submitted 118 amendments in the Rajya Sabha to the President's Address that kickstarted the Parliament's Budget Session with around two dozen "regretting" the omission of any mention of the three contentious farms laws and the protests being held by farmers against them.

Except for YSR Congress floor leader V Vijayasai Reddy, the other 15 MPs had submitted one or more amendments related to the Bills, protest or general agriculture issues.

Not all MPs moved the amendments when the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address began as three of them -- K K Ragesh (CPIM), Reddy and N D Gupta (AAP) -- were not present when their names were called.

Of the 15 Opposition MPs who included amendments related to farmers, Trinamool Congress' Nadimul Haque did not move any of his five amendments when he was called to move it in the House.

There were at least 14 amendments that "regretted" the President not mentioning the repeal of the three laws and the Centre not intervening to repeal the laws. Five each dealt with the ongoing farmers' protests and general issues like suicide of farmers.

Those who submitted amendments on farmer-related issues include Elamaram Kareem, KK Ragesh and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya [CPI(M)], Tiruchi Siva (DMK), K C Venugopal and Digvijaya Singh (Congress), M V Shreyams Kumar (LJD), among others.

One of the amendments by CPI(M)'s Ragesh said that the speech did not mention the "government's refusal" to repeal the laws despite the country witnessing "huge protests by farmers and workers as well as the general public".

Siva's amendment talked about the "inability" of the government to resolve the problems of the protesting farmers and respond positively to their demands.

Kareem and Bhattacharya sought the amendment of the speech to include that the government did not intervene to repeal the laws despite over 150 farmers losing their lives during the peaceful protest.

Venugopal also moved an amendment on the Rs 20,000-crore Central Vista project and the Rs 900-crore Parliament Building, saying it would put "more economic burden" on the government when the economy is in "negative growth" and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There were over a dozen amendments on Covid-19-related issues and its management by the government, including "detrimental impact" of the "sudden" lockdown" while half a dozen mentioned about migrant workers affected by the pandemic.

Other issues mentioned in amendments included job loss, unemployment, paid news, child abuse, "failure" to increase public investment, GST, demonetisation, MNREGA, among others.