CHANDIGARH: Punjab Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa today blasted the Shiromani Akali Dal for betraying the people once again by being co-partner of the BJP in launching attack on the already weakened federal structure of the country under the garb of farm sector reforms.
In a statement, Bajwa said, “Akali Dal’s representative in the Modi government Harsimrat Kaur Badal was not only part of the decision to deregulate farm sector, she later hailed it and her husband and party president Sukhbir Singh Badal echoed her views the next day”. The Badals were now partners in the crime against farmers in the country. He said the two ordinances cleared by the Modi government and promulgated immediately not only hit at the federal structure of governance in the country but also start the count-down for making the minimum price support system and state marketing boards irrelevant and meaningless.
He said the support extended by Sukhbir Badal to the ordinances not only amounted to stabbing the farmers in the back but also adversely impact the farm economy thereby further impoverishing the farmers. The present Akali leadership had put a blot on the history of the Akali Dal in the process for which they would never be forgiven by the people. Their only interest was to stay in power. “It is now more than clear that the Sukbir-Majithia can’t survive without the state power, to grab which they can sell the interests of the party, the people and the state. This family now stands thoroughly exposed”, he added.
Mr Bajwa asserted it was not for the first time that the Akali Dal had backtracked from its historical agendas. Earlier, the it extended support to the abrogation of Article 370 ending special status of Jammu and Kashmir going against the party line as the party too had been demanding similar status for Punjab at one time. He said the memory of the people was not that short.
He made it clear that agriculture and allied activities were under the states and the intervention by the Modi government amounted to violation of those norms and the spirit of the constitution that specifies the central and state powers.
He said the choice with the SAD was to opt for interests of farmers and the people or to stay in power and the it had chosen to betray the farmers and stick to power.
He said the Capt Amarinder Singh government would fight at every level against this exploitation of the farmers by the Modi government of which the Akali Dal was a partner.