Farmers Movement Archive

Capt dares Sukhbir to quit BJP alliance

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh has challenged SAD president Sukhbir Badal to quit the BJP-led central government to prove his party’s sincerity on farm ordinances to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament. Dubbing Sukhbir’s ‘sudden U-turn’ on farm ordinances as a cheap gimmick to hoodwink the farming community, Amarinder said as a member of the ruling alliance at the Centre, SAD is party to the ordinances and had supported them unconditionally. Slamming Sukhbir over his party’s ‘brazen double standards’ on the issue, Amarinder also asked if the Akali leader is ready to vote against the ordinances in Parliament. “SAD’s so-called appeal to the Union government not to present the three central agricultural ordinances for approval in Parliament until all reservations expressed by farmer organisations are addressed is a total hogwash,” he added. Amarinder recalled the SAD president’s assertion during the all-party meeting convened by the CM on the issue in June that the central government had assured them that there would be no tinkering of the minimum support price (MSP). “It is more than obvious now that the SAD president had lied then in a deliberate bid to mislead the farmers,” he said. “What were they doing when the ordinances were being brought in? Why did they not object? After all, they are part of the central government responsible for these ordinances,” Amarinder said. “Your wife is a Union minister. Has she even once spoken for the farmers in the cabinet,” Amarinder asked Sukhbir.

The Times of India

2020-09-14

Chandigarh