New Delhi: The opposition leaders in Lok Sabha staged a walk out on Farm Laws on Wednesday, when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response to the motion of thanks on the president’s address. After a huge altercation, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress walked out as the Prime Minister said the slogan-shouting “was a planned strategy to drown out reason and hide the truth”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address said that this government and the Parliament respects farmers and will always continue to respect them”. The opposition, which has shredded him over the last two days for comments like “Andolanjeevi” and “parjeevi (parasites)” made during his last address, broke out in protests.

As Speaker Om Birla repeatedly asked the members to calm down, PM Modi said, “The farm laws will not bring down any farmers. No mandi has been shut or Minimum Support Prices have been stopped”. Modi said that “Minimum Support prices have been increased after the farm laws were formed. Moreover, farmers can now sell their goods wherever they want”.

Admitting that change will “always raise doubt”, he tagged it with the “Andolan jivi” jibe, the one that was adopted as a badge of honour by many in parliament, including the Congress’s P Chidambaram. “Today we see Andolan jeevis spoil the peaceful protest of Andolan kaaris. We must all know the difference. Holding posters of Naxals, terrorists, and those in jail for harming the nation amid the farmers’ peaceful protests – is that not harming the farmers’ cause?” he added in what appeared a dig at Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Narendra Modi also said that “the Congress today is a confused and divided party. It has reduced itself to this. Such a confused party cannot help the country or anyone… You want to shout inside Parliament, just as you do outside, and then please go ahead, but hiding behind lies will never get you anywhere.  The small farmer needs help, and we must help them, and that cannot be done without reforms,” he added.