Notwithstanding the widening gulf between the decades old allies — the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) — over the Central farm laws, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday personally called Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to wish the Akali patriarch on his 93rd birthday.
It has been learnt that the two leaders talked for a very short time and “no politics” were discussed during that. “It was a call just to wish the senior Badal on his birthday,” said a source privy to the development.
The development came a day after the five-time Chief Minister had written to the Prime Minister to scrap the three farm laws, seeking his “personal intervention” to reach a solution.
Notably, the Akali Dal has snapped ties with the BJP and moved out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the agriculture-related laws. Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Union Cabinet, while the senior Badal has recently returned his Padma Vibhushan award in protest against the contentious farm laws.