Farmers Movement Archive

SAD walks out of NDA

CHANDIGARH: Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) oldest ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) walked out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition in protest against the three farm bills and for continues ‘insensitivity’ towards Punjabi language and issues pertaining to Sikh community. Terming the bills anti-farmers and anti-Punjab, the core committee of the party decided unanimously to pull out of the BJP -led NDA alliance. The party held the centre's “stubborn” refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers crops on MSP and its continued insensitivity to Punjabi and Sikh issues like excluding Punjabi language as official language in Jammu and Kashmir the reasons for the decision. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the lone representative of the party in the Union Cabinet, had resigned on September 17. The meeting was presided over by the SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal who said that SAD will continue to stand by its core principles of peace, communal harmony and guard the interest of Punjab, Punjabi in general and Sikhs and farmers in particular. He said that the decision has been taken in consultation with the people of Punjab especially party workers and farmers. Badal said that the bills on agricultural marketing brought by the BJP government are lethal and disastrous for the already beleaguered farmers. He said the SAD was the oldest ally of the BJP, but the government did not listen to repeated pleas of honouring the sentiments of farmers. The SAD leader said that the party opposed these bills in the parliament and voted against them. He said that even after quitting the union government, the SAD had hoped that the centre would not press on with these " murderous assaults” on farmers and other poor sections who depend on agriculture and trade. “It seems that the BJP is totally out of touch with ground realities,” said Badal, He said that despite our best efforts, the BJP government did not honour the sentiments of farmers. He said that the farmers are the backbone of the national economy and it is in the national interest that the government should stand by them. Adding, he said that with successive decisions, the present government has shown its callous insensitivity to minority sentiments and has been indifferent to the peace and communal harmony in the country, especially in Punjab. Senior Akali leader Dr Daljit Cheema said that the decision has been taken after much deliberation. He further said that these bills were passed in an undemocratic manner and are being opposed in Punjab, Haryana and other states. "We had even requested President of India Ram Nath Kovind not to approve the bills passed by the parliament," said Dr Daljit Cheema. While slamming BJP for not paying heed to repeated pleas of SAD not to force anti-farmers bills, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said that there is no point in continuing in alliance. SAD had first forged an alliance with Bharatiya Jana Sangh, BJP’s predecessor, during state assembly elections in 1969. It later entered into coalition with BJP in 1997 during the state election. SAD joined BJP-led alliance at the centre in 1998.

The Times of India

2020-09-27

India