In a sign of worsening ties between SAD and the BJP, Badal on Friday said Harsimrat’s “resignation bomb” had shaken up Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was hence speaking daily on the farmer bills now. He also said that he was planning a big farmer march in Punjab on October 1 which will “shake the throne of Delhi”.Captain Amarinder Singh termed the Akali decision to quit the NDA “as nothing more than a desperate case of political compulsion for the Badals, who were effectively left with no other option after the BJP’s public criticism of the SAD over the Farm Bills.”“There was no moral high ground involved in this decision of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The Akalis had no choice before them, since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had already made it clear that it held SAD responsible for failing to convince the farmers about the goodness of the Agriculture Bills. The SAD decision to quit NDA was just the culmination of their saga of lies and deception, which eventually led to their being cornered on the issue of the Bills,” said the Chief Minister, adding that Sukhbir Singh Badal was “virtually caught between the devil and the deep sea after his initial unprincipled stand on the Farm Ordinances, followed by the sudden U-turn in the face of farmer protests.”Singh said the Akalis will now find themselves in a bigger political mess, having been left with no place either in Punjab or at the Centre. “They should admit to their deceitful actions as part of the Union Government and should beg the farmers for forgiveness,” the CM said.
SAD-BJP ties break; Akali Dal quits the NDA saying farmer bills are anti-Punjab and anti-farmer
New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal has announced pulling out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a week after the party MP Harsimrat Badal resigned from the Cabinet in protest of the new agriculture laws.“The NDA government at the Centre which brought such anti-farmer and anti-Punjab bills, we cannot be part of such an NDA. Our entire leadership has decided this today unanimously that we will not be a part of the NDA,” Badal announced on Saturday after a meeting of the party. He said the decision has followed after his meetings with party workers across Punjab.The SAD has been the oldest ally of the BJP with SAD patriarch Prakash Singh Badal being a founding member of the NDA. Both parties had shared power as allies for many years in Punjab.“We should have been asked by the Centre before framing these laws. We wanted farmers interest to be reflected in the bills but the bills were rammed through Parliament without any changes,” Badal said. He said the bills will adversely affect at least 20 lakh farmers and as many agricultural and mandi labourers.The move comes within a week of SAD leader and Rajya Sabha Naresh Gujral telling ET on September 20 that the party would take a call on quitting NDA within a week and had sought feedback from the party cadre across Punjab.The Akali Dal was under severe pressure from farmers, its main voting base, as well as Congress in the state to walk the talk and quit the NDA. Captain Amarinder Singh had been slamming the SAD for the last one week saying the latter was being hypocritical by not quitting the NDA even as Harsimrat Badal had resigned.
