Chandigarh Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday asked Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal to stop shedding crocodile tears over the plight of farmers, whose very existence was threatened by the farm ordinances that the Central government had passed, with the support of his party.
Having given its full backing to the ordinances, which were clearly the first step towards the elimination of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime, the CM said that the SAD had lost all locus-standi to even pretend to care about the farmers, whose condition had deteriorated to abysmal levels.
“Sukhbir should not forget that as Union minister, his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal, was part of the Cabinet meeting that stamped its approval on the ordinances that will totally destroy Punjab’s farming community,” CM added.
Ridiculing the SAD president’s offer to lead a delegation of farmer organisations to seek clarification from the Centre on the MSP, the CM said that Sukhbir was totally disconnected from the ground situation.
He pointed out that the ordinances were completely against India’s federal structure, and were in line with the recommendations of the Shanta Kumar committee, which had also suggested dismantling the MSP structure.
Having implemented the recommendation on the ordinances, the inference was logical that the MSP elimination would soon follow, he said, adding that Sukhbir was conveniently choosing to ignore that in order to protect the interests of SAD, in particular his own and his wife’s interests.
{{/usCountry}}Having implemented the recommendation on the ordinances, the inference was logical that the MSP elimination would soon follow, he said, adding that Sukhbir was conveniently choosing to ignore that in order to protect the interests of SAD, in particular his own and his wife’s interests.
{{/usCountry}}“Left with no defence for SAD’s anti-farmer and anti-Punjab actions, Sukhbir was now trying, desperately, to save face with his offer,” added the CM.
Amarinder claimed that the government, at the Centre, had failed to take a single initiative to protect farmers’ interests in the past six years, and thus neither farmers nor their representative organisations had any trust in their assurances.