New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday congratulated Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal for pulling out of NDA in protest against the farm bills.
“Congratulations to Sukhbir Singh Badal President of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and MP Harsimrat Badal who under the leadership of Prakash Singh Badal pulled out of NDA in a protest to Farmers’ Bills. Thanks for firmly standing with the Farmers!” Pawar tweeted.
Days after quitting the union cabinet, SAD decided to pull out of the BJP-led NDA alliance over “Centre’s stubborn refusal to give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers crops on MSP”
Congratulations to Shri Sukhbir Singh Badal President of @Akali_Dal_ and MP @HarsimratBadal_ who under the leadership of Hon. Shri Prakash Singh Badal pulled out of NDA in a protest to Farmers’ Bills. Thanks for firmly standing with the Farmers! @officeofssbadal
— Sharad Pawar (@PawarSpeaks) September 27, 2020
The decision of pulling out of the BJP-led NDA alliance was taken unanimously at the core committee meeting of SAD.
Apart from Centre’s stance on the agriculture bills, the party also talked of “its continued insensitivity to Punjabi and Sikh issues like not including Punjabi language in the list of official languages in Jammu and Kashmir”.
The meeting was presided over by the SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal. The decision came at the end of a meeting that lasted over three hours.
Addressing the media later, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the party will continue to stand by its core principles of “peace, communal harmony and guarding the interest of Punjab, Punjabis in general and Sikhs and farmers in particular”.
He said the decision has been taken in consultation with the people of Punjab, especially party workers and farmers.
Badal said that the bills on agricultural marketing brought by the BJP-led government were “lethal and disastrous” for the already beleaguered farmers.
SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal had quit from the union cabinet as Food Processing Minister over the agriculture bills.
