New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS): The Congress on Wednesday cited instances when even the British empire had to withdraw certain laws due to farmers' agitation and asked the government not to confront the farmers as they are the backbone of the country.

Participating in the motion of thanks to the President's Address, leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "The Congress was with the government in its fight against the enemies like China and Pakistan but confronting farmers is not good."

"When the Britishers withdrew many laws, why not us and I request the Prime Minister to withdraw the three farm laws and find out the people who are missing after the January 26 incident," he added.

The Congress leader condemned the incident at the Red Fort and asked for strict action against them but demanded that false cases should not be pursued against the farm leaders.

The Congress also said the cases registered against the Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and journalists should be withdrawn.

While speaking on Kashmir, Azad said that not once the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked for bifurcation of the state but the government has done that and converted it into a union territory.

Azad said, "When the state government was there, there was much development, less militancy and law and order problem was low."

He said, "Tourism was down in the state and people were sitting at home, education has been finished in the state, how there could be development without schools. And because of Internet issues online classes could not be conducted."

He congratulated the government for conducting the District Development Council (DDC) polls in J&K. The Congress leader said the people were unhappy due to scrapping of Article 370.

Azad said, "I request the Prime Minister to restore the statehood of J&K and conduct elections."

Earlier, the opposition agreed to discuss the motion of thanks prior to the discussion on contentious farm laws and it was decided to increase the time of the discussion unanimously.

Leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "The government has cited that there is no ritual of discussing anything before the President's motion of thanks, so all the opposition has agreed to discuss the thanks motion and take up the farmers issue later,"

The Chairman after the proposal of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi agreed on the broad consensus in the House and agreed to raise the timing of the discussion to 15 hours to discuss the farm laws.