Farmers Movement Archive

Keen to meet leaders of farm unions, sort out their doubts: SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal

SAD has been facing backlash from farmers over its initial support for the three contentious farm laws, so much so that it has put its election campaign on hold. The party had put pressure on its rivals by taking a lead and launching ‘Gal Punjab Di’, but now put its rallies on hold for a week after the Moga incident. It wants to meet the farm union leaders to put forth its point and answer their queries. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal tells TOI’s Neel Kamal that his party’s 100-day outreach programme will not be affected by “sponsored protests of the Congress and the AAP.” Excerpts:Farmers’ opposition has become the biggest roadblock in your 100-day ‘Gal Punjab Di’ campaign.I want to make it very clear that it is not the anger of farmers (that we are facing). It is coming from our political opponents — the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. Thousands of people attend our rallies and most are farmers. But there are only around 20 to 50 holding protests. We can’t compare these 20 to 50 with thousands of farmers sitting in the rallies. It is not farmers versus Akali Dal, but all the other parties versus Akali Dal. You put the number at 20 to 50, but in reality, hundreds join these protests as was evident from the Moga incidentWhat I meant is that at some places there are 20-odd people protesting, at some 50, at others 100 or may be 200 or 300. At Moga, it was a clash between protesters and police, not us. At the root of these protests are leaders of Congress and AAP, as we have collected details and found people of Baghapurana Congress MLA Darshan Bar among protesters. Likewise, zila parishad members, councillors and leaders of APP (have been spotted among the protesters). We have a list of these people and their photographs with us. Then why don’t you file a complaint and demand action against those persons?Some senior police officers have told me in confidence that they have clear instructions for allowing protesters ‘to do their job’. Some officers clearly said that chief minister Amarinder Singh wants this and that their (police) hands are tied. The violence in Moga during your rally was the first such incident in Punjab and farm groups have given the state government a deadline for withdrawing the case linked to it.The clash was between the protesters and the police; we are nowhere in the picture. But, we have no problem if the case is withdrawn. It is for the government to investigate the matter and if the case is withdrawn, as per the demand of farmer groups, we have no objection to it. Most Punjab farm groups feel the launch of early electioneering may adversely affect their protest. Some have even said that they are against holding assembly elections before their longstanding issues are resolved.We have not started early. Only three and a half months are left for real time electioneering and even out of that, farmers will be busy with paddy harvesting and wheat sowing for one-and-a-half months. We are left with only 55 days for electioneering, to go to every constituency. We have to make plans, frame policies for the welfare of all sections of the society, and for that, we are meeting the people to get their feedback as to what needs to be done — for them and for Punjab. It is not early if we look at the time left to reach out to the people, to listen to them in the right earnest. We have never intended to harm the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the central farm laws. Wrong perception is being created by Congress and the AAP. We are the only party in Punjab which is with the farmers. But farm organisations say the political parties should start electioneering two months before the polls.See, practically we don’t have much time. Once the election code of conduct comes into force, parties get involved in nominations and other related things, which takes away 10-12 days and serious campaigning is not done then. Last time, we started campaigning a year before the elections. In West Bengal, it started a year-and-a-half before the assembly elections. In 2017, AAP had started campaigning a year before the elections. Farm unions are still questioning SAD’s strong support of the Centre’s controversial farm bills.We have formed a three-member committee of senior leaders. We have already written to the farm leaders to tell us where we can meet, as we are ready to answer all their queries. We are ready to explain our past actions, present and future actions pertaining to the farm laws. We are the ones who withdrew from the (Union) government, resigned from the ministry, returned awards and what not. We want to alert farmer organisations that some parties are trying to misuse their name and put guns on the shoulders of farmers to defame them in the eyes of the central government. We want Punjab to remain peaceful. How do you see Muzzafarnagar mahapanchayat and its pan-India impact?The mahapanchayat witnessed a massive turnout of farmers, which is a clear message to the Union government to fall in line and listen to the farmers or they may throw you out. It will crush the ego of the BJP government. You and former minister Bikramjit Majithia have alleged that the Punjab government is working in cahoots with central agencies to create trouble in Punjab in order to impose the President’s rule.Things are crystal clear. Captain Amarinder Singh is left with only four months (in CMO). He has no future and the way Congress high command put Navjot Singh Sidhu above him, he does not have much to do and is now with the central government. This suits the Centre as they have a target of making parties fight against each other. Agencies like RAW and IB are working on it, to prepare the ground for imposition of the President’s Rule in the state. Then, the BJP can work as it wants and also crush the support to the farm struggle. Your party has been a supporter of federal structure and more rights for the states. You were planning to cobble together a front of parties opposed to BJP and Congress.We are working on it and have been in talks with other parties. A strong alternative to BJP and Congress will emerge before 2024 and the results of assembly elections in Punjab and UP will play a decisive role in the formation of this front. Do you find any difference between Congress and BJP as far as centralisation of power is concerned?BJP, now, is completely a one-man or two-man party. The top leadership of Congress has finished the party. Every political party has a face, Rahul Gandhi as the Congress face destroyed it with his inefficiency. Modi destroyed the BJP because of his autocratic nature. That’s the difference between the two. In other states BJP is accused of communal polarisation.I believe communal harmony is most important for Punjab, being a border state. We have never witnessed sectarian violence in the state. We believe in the teachings of our revered Gurus, who preached ‘sarbat da bhala’ (welfare of everyone). The Gurus sacrificed lives for others, which is the biggest asset of Punjab. No force, not even the BJP, will succeed in it here. Your tie-up with BSP has led to a strong undercurrent of unhappiness in the Punjab BSP cadre over the choice of seats.Every time someone fails to get the party nomination, some problems crop up. But the SAD-BSP alliance for the polls is going 99.9% strong and if there is any problem it will be sorted out. SAD has been demanding the sacking of a few Punjab ministers on charges of corruption. Which of the ministers should be removed and why?We 100% demand sacking of ministers involved into corrupt practices, like Sadhu Singh Dharamsot who is accused of scholarship scam, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, the health minister is accused of getting prime land near Mohali and so on. We are preparing a list of ministers and others involved in corrupt practices. Whosoever is into corruption should not be spared. Akali Dal is accused of inking PPAs which are hurting Punjab.We had inked power rates at Rs 2.80 and Rs 2.86 with IPPs and now people are paying Rs 9 for every single unit. It is the wrongs of Congress government which need to be looked into. And even if the PPAs are to be quashed, we have no problem with it but there should be an alternative arrangement for power. Do you think the case of theft of bir of Guru Granth Sahib, sacrilege and subsequent incidents could have been handled differently?As then demanded by Congress and Sikh organisations, we had handed over the cases to CBI to find the truth. We acted only as per the demands of many. We always wanted the truth to come out and whosoever is behind all this should be finished. The Congress, in its four-and-a-half years, has had only one intention — to frame the Akali Dal and the Badal family, for whatever wrongs have been done by anyone. Former DGP Sumedh Saini was chief director of the vigilance bureau during the SAD-BJP tenure. Do you now think that appointing him as Punjab DGP ultimately hurt you politically?It is the protocol of the police department that the senior-most officer is made the head of the organisation. We only followed that.

The Times of India

2021-09-09

Chandigarh