Not the India that Gandhi envisaged: Opposition compares barricades at farmers' protest with Berlin Wall

The Opposition on Friday pounded the government on the contentious Agri laws, questioning the internet shutdown and snapping of power and water supply at protest sites and targeting of critics with sedition cases, with a senior Congress MP comparing the barricades erected at a farmers' protest site with the Berlin Wall and war prison.

Top guns from the Opposition benches like Congress' Anand Sharma and Mallikarjun Kharge, BSP's Satish Chandra Mishra, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut and NCP's Praful Patel sought to put the government on the mat during the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address even as they condemned the violence at Red Fort during tractor rally on Republic Day.

Pratap Singh Bajwa, a senior Congress MP from Punjab, made a spirited attack while seeking to find holes in the government's defence of the three farm laws as well as its handling of the farmers' protests at Delhi borders and comparing it with the scenes in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Uganda. "This is not the country that Mahatma Gandhi envisaged," he said.

Read: Tikait says 'chakka jam' to be pan-India except Delhi

"(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi-ji says he is just a call away. Who has your phone number, Modi-ji?" Bajwa said, referring to the prime minister's comments during the all-party meeting in which he said that the government's doors are open for discussion.

Describing the farm laws as "death warrants" for farmers, Bajwa told Modi that this is the time to become a statesman by going to the Delhi borders to meet the farmers and announce the repealing of laws.

"How can farmers trust you...You are erecting barbed wires as if the Berlin Wall is being built. You are giving Delhi borders the shape of war prisons...Parliament is in session. Leaders of Opposition parties went to Ghazipur border but police did not allow them to meet the farmers. Is this democracy?", he said while referring to the snapping of power and water supply as well as the internet.

Read more: FIR against deceased farmer's family for insulting national flag

"You brand us as Khalistanis...anti-nationals...Don't teach us nationalism. Every month a child from Punjab and Haryana returns home wrapped in the Tricolour...Guru Tegh Bahadur sacrificed his life to protect the Kashmiri Brahmins...My brother, a brigadier at 192 Mountain Brigade, led the victory in the Tiger Hills," he said.

BSP floor leader Mishra said that the government has "dug up trenches to suppress farmers' stir". "You've not done it for them, but for yourself. You snapped their water and electricity supplies and even removed toilets, without thinking that women are also there. This is a human rights violation," he said.

Shiv Sena's Raut said people speaking the truth are dubbed as a "traitor" or an "anti-national" and cases of sedition have been slapped against those criticising the government.

Also read: Centre's offer to amend farm laws doesn't mean shortcomings in legislations: Tomar

"We heard minister Dharmendra Pradhan is asking us to listen to the truth. For the last six years, we have been listening to the truth, even if the untruth has been dubbed as truth. The atmosphere of the country today is such that anyone writing the truth is dubbed as a traitor and an anti-national," he alleged.

BJD's Sasmit Patra demanded that the Centre implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee report properly, which asks for Minimum Support Price at 1.5XC2 (comprehensive assessment of the cost of production).