Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Monday asked Sukhbir Badal to stop shedding crocodile tears over the plight of the farmers, whose very existence, he alleged, was threatened by the ordinances passed recently by the Centre with the support of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Singh said these ordinances were clearly the first step towards elimination of the MSP regime and the SAD, having given its full backing to them, has lost all locus standi to even pretend to care about farmers.
The Centre recently promulgated three ordinances -- the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance.
Sukhbir should not forget that as a Union minister, his wife and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal, was part of the cabinet meeting that approved the ordinances that will totally destroy Punjab's farming community, Singh added.
His statement came a day after the SAD chief had offered to lead farmers' outfits to seek any clarification from Union Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on these ordinances.
Ridiculing the SAD president's offer, the CM said it was evident that Sukhbir was totally disconnected from the ground situation.
The ordinances are completely against India's federal structure and are in line with the recommendations of the Shanta Kumar committee, which had also suggested dismantling of the minimum support price structure, the CM said in a statement here.
Having implemented the recommendation in the ordinances, the inference is logical that the MSP elimination would follow soon, he said.
Sukhbir was conveniently choosing to ignore that in order to protect the interests of SAD, in particular his own and his wife's, alleged the CM.
No purpose will be solved now by Sukhbir pretending to be concerned about the farmers whose interests his own party was instrumental in damaging by being an active supporter of the ordinances, alleged the CM.
Left with no defence for SAD's anti-farmer and anti-Punjab actions, Sukhbir was now trying desperately to save face with his offer, said the chief minister.
Sukhbir does not even seem to know that Punjab's farmer organisations had already protested openly against the ordinances.
In the circumstances, any promise or clarification on the part of the Union Agriculture Ministry would be meaningless unless they withdraw the ordinances to show that they truly had the interests of the farmers at heart, he said.
PTI
Also read: Akalis 'sold out' Punjab's interests by supporting ordinances: Punjab CM
