PM Modi in Rajya Sabha on Monday. (ANI)Parliament Today  Updates: Replying to the Motion of Thanks on President Kovind’s address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday said the newly-passed farm laws should be given a chance and that the MSP system is here to stay. Requesting the protesting farmers to go back, he reiterated that the government is open to talks.

The Prime Minister said that there is a need to protect the nation from a new FDI which he referred to as ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’. “The nation is making progress and we are talking about FDI but I see that a new FDI has come to the fore. We have to protect the nation from this new FDI. We need Foreign Direct Investment but the new FDI is ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’, we have to protect ourselves from it,” he said.

Modi said opposition to the Centre’s newly passed farm laws lacks in substance and that they have been stalled for decades. Reiterating that his government is working for the small farmers, he said that the government has initiated changes in the agriculture sector aimed at empowering the farmer since 2014.

India as the “mother of democracy.” Expressing gratitude to all the parliamentarians, PM Modi said the credit for battling the pandemic goes to the citizens and not to the government. He also said that the world has recognised India’s potential to tackle the pandemic. Taking a jibe at the opposition for boycotting President Kovind’s address, PM Modi said, “It would have been better had the Opposition heard the President’s address. But it is the power of his speech that without hearing his speech, the Opposition spoke a lot about it.”

TMC MPs meanwhile, staged a walkout, as PM Modi began his reply in Rajya Sabha to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.