AMRITSAR SAHIB, Punjab—The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has resolved to keep its headquarter and all other offices and various institutes closed in support of the country-wide shutdown call given by the farmer organizations on December 8 against three ‘anti-farmer’ laws introduced by the BJP-led union government of India.
In a statement issued here, the SGPC honourary chief secretary Harjinder Singh Dhami said the gurdwara body is helping the farmers agitating against the laws from day one by providing them langar, medical aid, and other kinds of facilities at the sites of protests on outskirts of the Delhi, national capital of India.
On the other hand, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) President Sukhbir Badal today appealed to Akali workers as well as Punjabis to give whole hearted support to the Bharat Bandh call, saying the SAD (B) would work assiduously side by side with the peasantry to ensure the repeal of the anti-farmer agricultural laws.
Stating that the fight for justice had now become a fight of the ‘annadaata’ against the central government, the SAD (B) President said “I am confident that the mass agitation will force the centre to bow down before the demands of the farmers”.
Sukhbir Badal said it was unfortunate that the central government was dragging its feet and deliberately delaying taking a decision on the demands of the farmer organizations. He said farmers had been protesting against the central agri laws since three months and were now holding a sit-in on the Delhi border for the last eleven days.
“Besides old-aged persons, women and small children are part of the protest. It is extremely unfortunate that the centre has refused to listen to the voice of the annadaata and is making them suffer in the biting cold out in the open”, he said.
Asking the centre to make an immediate course correction, Badal said it was not right on its part to forcibly impose the three agri laws on farmers. “The central government did not discuss the provisions of the laws with farmers and now when the farmers have made it clear that the laws are not acceptable to them the government should not stand on false pride and should repeal them immediately”, he added.
Badal also took a note of the fact that even the international community was perturbed at the intransigent attitude of the central government. He said the world over the right of the farmers to peaceful protest had been lauded and everyone had stressed the need to ensure the human rights of the protesters were protected.
He said even the United Nations had upheld the right of people to demonstrate peacefully. He said keeping all these issues in mind; the central government should accept the demands of the farmer organizations and repeal the three agricultural laws with immediate effect.
It is worth mentioning here that it was the government of the SAD (B) in Punjab, which ordered Punjab Police to fire at Sikhs protesting peacefully at Kotakpura and Behbal Kalan for justice in case of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargarhi village and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala of Faridkot district in 2015. Two Sikh protesters were killed in the Police firing. Besides, it booked hundreds of the Sikh activists during its 10-year long regime in Punjab in false cases including ones which are draconian in nature like farm laws of Centre.
