Punjab CM sold the interests of farming community, said Ex. Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal

Bathinda, September 29 – Former union minister and Bathinda mp Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had sold off the interests of Punjab by refusing to forward the Vidhan Sabha resolution rejecting the three erstwhile central ordinances on agriculture to the centre.

Accusing the chief minister of indulging in double-speak and duplicity at a worker meeting here, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said on the one hand the chief minister had called a special session of the Vidhan Sabha to reject the central ordinances but on the other by refusing to forward the resolution to the centre he proved he had no sympathy for the farmer or their cause”.

Telling the chief minister to come clean, Mrs Badal said before holding meetings with Kisan organizations, Capt Amarinder Singh should tell Punjabis why he had not forwarded the resolution passed on August 28 to the centre for one month. “The people deserve to know if there is a bigger conspiracy and the chief minister is in league with anti-farmer and anti-Punjab forces which were bent on denying justice to farmers”, the Bathinda mp added.

Asserting that this kind of backstabbing behavior was nothing new for the chief minister, the Bathinda mp said earlier in 2017 the Congress government amended the State APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) Act allowing the creation of private yards, direct marketing and e-trading which are the exact provisions against which farmers are agitating against now. She said similarly the Congress government also participated in the consultative process on the agricultural ordinances. “Official documents are available which prove the guilt of Capt Amarinder Singh as well as his Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. They consented to the anti-farmer move in 2019 but remained silent on this issue for one year, which amounts to deceiving Punjab and its farmers”.

Responding to media queries on the occasion, Mrs Badal said “the chief minister is misleading farmers and Kisan unions. Farmers’ issue came at the centre stage only after I, being the representative of the Shiromani Akali Dal, resigned from the Union Cabinet in protest against the Government of India’s move. We broke the alliance with the BJP-led NDA after realizing the BJP was unwilling to relent on the issue. We took it is our responsibility and walked out of power as well as the alliance because the SAD is first and foremost an organizations of farmers and will never be part of anything which goes against their interests”.

Reacting to a query regarding the burning of a tractor in Delhi by the Punjab Youth Congress, Mrs Badal said “they are all doing a ‘tamasha’. They bought a tractor from the junk dealer and put it on fire twice – at Ambala earlier and now in Delhi for cheap publicity. But people are well aware of their drama, so they won’t fall in their trap this time. If the Congress is really serious about the farmers’ it has the authority to declare Punjab a Mandi (Principal Marketing Yard) after which the corporate sharks won’t be able to cause damage to our farmers. But they won’t take any such step as they have already implemented what the Centre is going to do now”, Mrs Badal added. EOM

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