A day after SAD president Sukhbir Baal offered to lead a delegation of farmers’ organizations to meet the Union Agriculture Minister to seek clarification on the Centre’s farm ordinances, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday lashed out on the Akali leader for “shedding crocodile tears” now. Capt Amarinder asked Sukhbir to stop shedding crocodile tears over the plight of the farmers, whose very existence was threatened by the farm ordinances passed by the Central Govt with his party’s support. “Having given its full backing to the ordinances, which is clearly the first step towards elimination of the MSP regime, SAD has lost all locus standii to even pretend to care about the farmers, whose condition has deteriorated to abysmal levels under their rule,” said Capt Amarinder.He said that Sukhbir should not forget that as Union Minister, his wife and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, was part of the Cabinet meeting that stamped its approval on the ordinances that will totally destroy Punjab’s farming community.
Ridiculing the SAD president’s offer to lead a delegation of farmer organizations to seek clarification from the Centre on MSP, the Chief Minister said that it was evident that Sukhbir was totally disconnected from the ground situation.
Having been repeatedly cheated by the central government, which has failed to take a single initiative to protect the farmers’ interests in the past six years, neither the farmers nor their representative organisations had any trust now in their assurances, said Capt Amarinder. Sukhbir does not even seem to know that Punjab’s farmer organisations had already protested openly against the ordinances, which they also found to be completely anti-farmer and designed to pave the way for ending the MSP procurement regime, he added.
SUKHBIR ASKS CM TO ACCOMPANY HIM ALONG WITH FARMER BODIES
Under attack, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday asked Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to accompany him along with farmer organisations to take a blanket assurance on MSP and assured marketing from the Centre.
Sukhbir told the Chief Minister that “your repeated lies about the end of MSP regime have already been exposed by the Central Government”.
“The Centre has already announced that MSP and assured marketing will remain in force in their present form. However, since you are choosing to disbelieve this assurance, you should also accompany me along with farmer organizations to get a blanket assurance on this issue from the Union Agriculture Minister,” he said.
Sukhbir accused that the bogey of the end of MSP regime and assured marketing has also been raised deliberately to mislead the farming community and inflame passions against the SAD in league with AAP. “This is a well thought out strategy and AAP is also playing along as both parties feel they must unite against the SAD,” he said adding that farmers would not be fooled by this propaganda.
Asking the Chief Minister to walk the talk, Sukhbir said that Capt Amarinder should first take some pro-farmer decision before talking about protecting the rights of farmers.