—Days after snapping old ties with the BJP over farm laws, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) core committee today resolved to establish contact to other regional political parties in India and constituted a panel to coordinate with these parties to ensure the setting up of a genuinely federal structure in the country.
Meeting of the core committee was held at the headquarters of the party here and chaired by the president Sukhbir Badal.
The panel will be chaired by Rajya Sabha member Balwinder Singh Bhunder with Lok Sabha Member Prem Singh Chandumajra, Rajya Sabha Member Naresh Gujral and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjinder Singh Sirsa as members.
Spokesperson of the SAD (Badal) said this committee will be in touch with the parties which support more powers to the states in form of financial and political autonomy. “In light of the fresh decisions taken by the centre, strengthening of the federal structure is necessary and the SAD (B) has always played leading role in the struggle against authoritarian and one-sided moves of the union government. We are living in the country which is full of cultural and regional diversity and our aim is to achieve cooperative federalism for its safeguard”, said Sukhbir while addressing the meeting.
A year ago, being an ally of the BJP, the SAD (Badal) welcomed Centre’s move of abrogating Indian constitution’s Article 370 that gave special status and autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, and converting it into union territory. The SAD (B) did so despite having history of struggling for Sri Anandpur Sahib resolution that advocates more powers or autonomy to the states. Now when it has snapped ties with the BJP, it has returned to its core agenda to control the damage done by the decisions it took in past in alliance with the Hindu right wing political outfit.
Moreover, a three-member high powered committee was also set up in the core committee meeting to coordinate with farmers’ organizations and other stakeholders to chalk out the strategy and getting the farmers’ demands fulfilled. The Committee is comprised of Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Sikandar Singh Maluka.
An 11-member committee under the chairmanship of former Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal will safeguard the interests of Dalits and economically weaker and exploited sections of society, as per another decision of the SAD (B).
Besides, a committee will fight for getting official language status to Punjabi in J&K. It will be comprised of Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Manjinder Singh Sirsa will also put efforts to promote Punjabi language, literature & culture across the country.
