‘No longer the NDA envisioned by Vajpayee, Badal sahab’: Harsimrat after SAD’s exit from alliance

Harsimrat Kaur Badal had resigned as the Union minister earlier this month to protest the passage of the farm bills in Parliament.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Saturday attacked the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by the BJP, for ignoring the woes of farmers after her party pulled out of the coalition at the Centre over three agriculture sector related bills.

Former food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, over BJP's farm sector bills.(PTI)

“If Pain & Protests of 3 cr punjabis fail to melt the rigid stance of GoI, it’s no longer the #NDA envisioned by Vajpayee ji & Badal sahab. An alliance that turns a deaf ear to its oldest ally & a blind eye to pleas of those who feed the nation is no longer in the interest of Pb,” she tweeted.

 

The SAD leader also attached a tweet by Sukhbir Singh Badal, her party’s president and husband, announcing the snapping of ties with the NDA.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal had resigned as the Union minister earlier this month to protest the passage of the farm bills in Parliament.

As it pulled out of more than two-decade-old ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the SAD accused the NDA of “continued insensitivity to Punjabi and Sikh issues on late Saturday. “Shiromani Akali Dal core committee decides unanimously to pull out of the BJP-led #NDA because of the Centre’s stubborn refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of crops on #MSP and its continued insensitivity to Punjabi and #Sikh issues,” Sukhbir Singh Badal tweeted.

Sukhbir Singh said that the SAD will continue to stand by its core principles of peace, communal harmony and guard the interest of Punjab and Punjabi in general, and Sikhs and farmers in particular. The decision on farm bills, Badal said, has been taken in consultation with the people of Punjab, especially the party’s workers and farmers.

One of NDA’s oldest allies, SAD has been up in arms against the recently passed farms bills by Parliament. The legislations are yet to be signed by the President Ram Nath Kovind to clear the final hurdle. After the President’s assent, the bills will be recognised as laws in the country.