Voice of farmers crushed in and outside Parliament: Rahul Gandhi

Referring to a news report that quoted Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh's statement which states that there was no violation of rules in passage of the farm sector bills in the Upper House, Gandhi said, "The agriculture laws are a death sentence to our farmers. Their voice is crushed in Parliament and outside. Here is proof that democracy in India is dead."

In a statement to the media on Sunday, the Deputy Chairman said that there was no violation of rules during the passage of the farm sector bills in the Rajya Sabha last Sunday.

In response to the allegation by the Opposition that division was not allowed on the motion by the Opposition to refer the bills to a Select committee of the Rajya Sabha, the Deputy Chairman said that the member who had moved the resolution was not on his seat when the motion was taken up.

"The statutory resolution disapproving the ordinance and the amendment for the reference of the bill to select committee moved by Mr K K Ragesh were rejected by a voice vote at 1.07 p.m as Mr Ragesh was in the Well of the house and not on his seat in the gallery at that point of time. This can be seen from the video as after calling him to move his resolution and amendment, I looked at the gallery, but he was not there," the Deputy Chairman had said in a statement to the media on Sunday.

Responding to the allegation that the division on amendment moved by Tiruchi Shiva for reference of the bill to the select committee was not allowed despite the member being on his seat, the Deputy Chairman said he could not call for a division as there was lack of order in the house at that time.

"It is true that Mr Tiruchi Shiva demanded a division on his amendment for reference of his bill to select committee from his seat at 1.10 p.m. You will see from the same video that around 1.09 p.m, one member was tearing the rule book and throwing on me.

"Besides I was surrounded by some hostile members, who were trying to snatch papers from me. You will appreciate that as per rules and practice, in order to have a division, two things are essential. Firstly there should be a demand for division and equally important that there should be order in the house," the Deputy chairman said.