CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) has snapped decades old ties with the Hindu right wing political party BJP by quitting National Democratic Alliance (NDA) finally in protest against the farm bills adopted by the NDA government in centre.
Under fire for retaining the ties despite pulling out only Minister from the Narendra Modi cabinet, the SAD (Badal) conducted meeting of its core committee here late evening, during which the decision was taken to snap the ties which was termed as ‘Nahun mass da rishta’ (relation of nail and flesh).
The SAD (Badal) president Sukhbir Badal who chaired the meeting, said, “The party cannot be part of the party which has adopted the anti-farmer bills. Besides, it excluded Punjabi language from the list of official languages of Jammu and Kashmir. There is deep outrage among the people of Punjab over these two recent issues concerning existence of Punjabis”.
So far, the SAD (Badal) was reluctant to snap ties but almost every section of Punjab was demanding so. In such a situation, this party which claims to be the only representative political party of the Sikhs, were left with no option, but to part ways with the saffron party which is becoming centre of criticism these days in Punjab over farm bills.
It is worth mentioning here that before these bills were tabled in Parliament of India, the SAD (B) remained favouring these bills for many months, but made U-turn over it after facing heat from the farmers of Punjab, who are on warpath of protest against these bills.
Sukhbir’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned as Union Minister for Food Processing Industry in protest against the bills. However, this move has failed to pacify Punjab’s people who are saying that quitting the cabinet without withdrawing support to the BJP reflects dual standards and is merely a drama.
It may be recalled that the SAD (B) patriarch Parkash Badal has also been justifying this alliance citing that these ties are necessary for peace and communal harmony of Punjab. Unlike other allies of the BJP, the SAD (B) never put any condition for resolving several pending issues of the people whom it represents. Loot of Punjab’s river water, the issue of giving Chandigarh to Punjab and Punjab speaking areas are some of the issues for which the SAD has fought.
