Farmers Movement Archive

Sukhbir calls for joint fight for rights of farmers, farm labour, traders

CHANDIGARH: A day after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) severed its 24-year-old tie-up with BJP, party president Sukhbir Singh Badal in a public address on Sunday called upon all political parties and organisations to come together on a single platform to protect the interests of farmers, farm labour and farm produce traders. After the SAD finally broke the ‘nau-mass da rishta’ (ties like nail and flesh) with the saffron party on Saturday late evening, its leaders, including Sukhbir, opened an attack on BJP’s senior leadership, accusing it of not taking the Akalis on board before taking important decisions, especially those concerning Punjab and Punjabis. “Anything like new farm bills, which increase the uncertainty over the fate of farmers’ produce can have disastrous implications not only for the economy but also for social stability in the country,” he said. Addressing SAD workers at Ropar, Hoshiarpur and Phagwara, Sukhbir reiterated his party’s firm commitment to preserving peace, communal harmony and fraternity in Punjab at all costs. He urged party workers to mobilise for the October 1 ‘kisan march’, which would commence from three religious Takhts in Punjab and culminate at Mohali. At the conclusion of these marches, the SAD had palanned to submit a memorandum to the Punjab governor for the President, urging him not to sign the three anti-farmer bills, but on the President gave his assent to the bills on Sunday. Later, talking to media persons, Sukhbir said, “The BJP leadership wasn’t ready to heed our repeated pleas against the anti-farmer bills. Nor were they listening to our objections on the exclusion of Punjabi as an official language in Jammu and Kashmir. After that, it was meaningless to stay on.” Therefore, first the party’s representative Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the cabinet and then after consulting the people, including party workers and leaders, the SAD decided to pull out of the alliance, he added. He again urged Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh to issue an ordinance to declare the whole state a mandi (principal marketing yard) to save farmers from the ‘black laws’. Lashing out at the chief minister for his “baseless statements”, Sukhbir asked him to come out of hiding rather than issuing petty tweets through officials. He also asked Amarinder to call a special session of legislative assembly and repeal the state’s APMC Act as implemented by the Congress government in 2017 to allegedly favour corporate houses. Where do SAD and BJP stand in Punjab? 2017 Punjab assembly elections and bypoll >> SAD had contested the 2017 Punjab assembly elections on 94 seats and its alliance partner BJP on the remaining 23 seats in the 117-member assembly. SAD could win 15 assembly segments and BJP clinched three assembly seats of Phagwara, Sujanpur and Abohar. SAD bagged a vote share of 25.24% and BJP fetched 5.39% of votes. After the October 2019 bypoll in four assembly seats, SAD was left with 14 MLAs and BJP with two. 2019 Lok Sabha elections In 2019, Lok Sabha polls, SAD contested on 10 parliamentary seats and could win two seats – Bathinda and Ferozepur. The remaining three seats were contested by its ally BJP, and it could bag two seats – Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur. SAD’s vote share was recorded at 27.45% and BJP’s at 9.63%. Congress won eight Lok Sabha seats with 40.12% vote share and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could only win the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat and got 7.38% votes.

The Times of India

2020-09-28

Chandigarh