Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said it was condemnable that after playing a hoax on the farmers of Punjab in league with the central government, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh was now trying to sell the fraud as an achievement.
In a statement here, the SAD President said it was shameful that even after Capt Amarinder Singh’s fraud had been discovered and it had been proved that he had colluded with the centre simply to get the ‘rail roko’ agitation of the farmer organizations lifted, he was trying to mislead Punjabis by trying to shift the blame of his own failures on others.
Asking the chief minister to come clean and tell Punjabis why he had chosen to legislate on a subject on the concurrent list which would require central assent, Badal asked “isn’t this a clear sign of collusion with the BJP government at the centre?”.
You could have taken the advice of the SAD and chosen to legislate on the subject of Agriculture by turning the entire State into a single ‘mandi’ to negate the three Agri laws but you chose to legislate on the subject of Trade over which the centre has the final say”. Asking the chief minister not to resort to street talk and instead rely on facts while speaking on serious issues, the SAD President said “it is a fact that the resolution you moved in the Vidhan Sabha said you were repealing the three Acts. However the Bills you moved were only amendments in the Acts which have spoiled Punjab’s case even further like in the case of the river waters termination act in which you strengthened the case of Rajasthan and Haryana”.
Mr Badal said it was also a fact that the chief minister had refused to share the proposed legislation with anyone including his own cabinet colleagues. “However you lied that the Bills had been framed in consultation with farmer bodies which have since denied this claim and called them ‘tutte futte’. Similarly you took a u turn by saying the special session would not serve any purpose and then called it when you faced the heat from the farmers”.
Badal said the chief minister had also played with the future of farmers of the State by not making government purchase on msp mandatory. He said the Congress government had also not done anything to secure the rights of growers of non-government purchase crops like basmati, maize and cotton.
