AAP MPs To Boycott President’s Budget Session Speech In Solidarity With Farmers

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said that its Members of Parliament (MPs) would boycott the President’s budget speech scheduled on Friday, in solidarity with farmers protesting against three contentious farm laws, Hindustan Times (HT) reported.

AAP has three Rajya Sabha MPs and one in the Lok Sabha. They had voted against the three laws when they were passed in Parliament in September 2020.

“AAP has been protesting against the three contentious laws since the day they were introduced in Parliament. The three laws aim at helping industrialists and they are anti-farmer in nature. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has torn a copy of the law in the Assembly, MPs of the party have staged a demonstration near the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises, and we have stood with the farmers who have gathered at Singhu and other border points in Delhi. Under the leadership of party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs of the party have decided to boycott the President’s speech in Parliament,” the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in a statement on Thursday.

Some other parties had announced a similar boycott of the President’s budget speech.

President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to address both the Houses of Parliament on Friday to mark the beginning of the Budget session. The Union Budget will be presented in Parliament by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday, the report added.