Farmers Movement Archive

Mann audio proof of AAP surrender to BJP: Harsimrat

Chandigarh: Bathinda MP and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday described AAP MP Bhagwant Mann’s press conference and release of audio clip from the standing-committee meeting as a “resounding self-goal and admission” that his party did not oppose the farm laws there or in Parliament. She said: “The masters of doublespeak are caught in the act, themselves providing the most irrefutable proof of how meekly Mann and his Aam Aadmi Party surrendered to the BJP on the three Acts while pretending publicly to oppose those. All this time, they had been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.” Harsimrat claimed that in the entire clip, Mann had spoken not a word against the laws that the farmers opposed. The former minister claimed: “The only thing you can hear is Mann’s seeking a meek clarification on the implications of the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act. He is cringing before the chairman virtually, while he pretends to roar in public to befool the masses.” Ridiculing Mann’s accusation that the Shiromani Akali Dal, Harsimrat in particular, had supported the farm bills secretly during a cabinet meeting, the Bathinda MP asked: “Where do you oppose a bill except in Parliament? And how do you oppose it more loudly, more categorically, and more effectively than by quitting the cabinet in protest and rejecting the very draft that the cabinet had considered and approved? Does he (Mann) need to be told why we broke the oldest political alliance in the country?”

The Times of India

2021-03-24

Chandigarh