Tricolour's insult during farmers' protest very unfortunate, says President

The govt's prompt response helped save millions amid the coronavirus pandemic, President Ram Nath Kovind said while addressing a joint session of Parliament on Day 1 of the Budget session

Our Constitution gives every citizen the right to free speech and peaceful protest, but the insult of the national tricolor and the Republic Day itself by protesting farmers was “very unfortunate”, said President Ram Nath Kovind while addressing the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament on the opening day of the Budget session.

The three new farm laws being opposed by farmers were in their own interest and only added to the rights they had under the previous farm law regime, he said, adding that the three new farm laws had been passed by Parliament after extensive deliberations seven months ago. Their implementation had been put on hold by the Supreme Court for now, and his government would respect the decision of the apex court, Kovind said.

"Farmers recently carried out a tractor rally. However, there was violence during the protests and there were incidents of insult to the national flag at Red Fort on Republic Day. This was very unfortunate," President Kovind said.

"If the Constitution gives us the right to freedom of expression, it also reaches us to take laws and rules seriously," he said. "Today there are more than 80 per cent small farmers, who number over 10 crore. The biggest beneficiaries of the new farm laws are these small farmers. They immediately started benefiting from these agricultural reforms."

Earlier, opening his address, Kovind said the Budget session was being held at the challenging time of Covid-19, but added: “No matter how big the challenge, we will not stop. India will not stop.” Whenever India had been united, it had achieved impossible goals, the President said. “In this fight against the pandemic, we have lost many countrymen, including ex-President Pranab Mukherjee, and six members of Parliament,” Kovind mentioned.

Saying he was pleased with his government’s prompt response to the health crisis, President Kovind asserted: “I am satisfied that due to the timely decisions of the government, the lives of millions of people have been saved. And the number of coronavirus patients is decreasing steadily now.”

Talking of cooperative federalism and its strengths, he said a Centre-state coordination had strengthened the Indian democracy. Over 100 million small farmers had started getting the benefits of the three farm laws across states, and many political parties had supported these reforms, he said.

Congress member Ravneet Singh Bittu, meanwhile, raised slogans during the President's address in Parliament, demanding a repeal of the three farm laws.