Harsimrat Badal quits Modi cabinet over ‘anti-farmer’ bills
Resignation a setback for SAD-BJP ties but alliance intact, for now; LS clears 2 bills
CHANDIGARH/NEW DELHI: Minister of food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Union cabinet on Thursday after the Akali Dal opposed legislation seeking to liberalise agricultural markets, exposing a rift between the party and its long-time ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, on reforms in the farm sector.
The resignation came on a day when the Lok Sabha cleared two contentious farm bills.
“I have resigned from Union cabinet in protest against antifarmer ordinances and legislation. Proud to stand with farmers as their daughter and sister,” Harsimrat Kaur Badal wrote in a Twitter message. In a fourpage resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said: “SAD can’t be party to anything that is anti-farmer”. She said she was deeply hurt that despite her and her party’s persistent pleas and efforts, the government didn’t take the farmers on board.
Her husband and party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said the party will continue to support the government and the BJP, but will oppose “anti-farmer policies”.
Harsimrat’s resignation as the Union minister is the denouement of her party’s about-turn on contentious farm bills passed in Parliament.
To be sure, SAD (a constituent of the ruling NDA since 2014) had publicly supported three farm ordinances after the Modi government promulgated it in June this year.
While the Congress government in Punjab termed the ordinances as “anti-farmer”, Sukhbir consistently stuck to the Centre’s assurances that the new reforms will have no bearing on the MSP. Sukhbir held two press conferences on June 25 and August 27 in support of the bills. On August 27, he made public a letter by Union agriculture minister NS Tomar in which he assured that there would be no impact on the MSP.
But, a rising crescendo of protests by farmers, who form SAD’S core political constituency, forced the party’s hand to change tack.
On September 12, the party’s core committee announced that it would oppose the farm bills in the Parliament. On the first day of the monsoon session, the party made a last-ditch effort to avert a flash point when it asked the Centre to refer to the bills to a select Parliamentary committee and take farmer organisations on board – a suggestion that didn’t find favour with the NDA government.
Facing a backlash from the farmers’ lobby, SAD upped the ante by issuing a whip to the party’s MPS in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to vote against the farm bills – a development that queered the pitch for Harsimrat’s resignation from the Modi government.
The trust farmers place in us is sacred to us. I am just standing by them as their daughter and sister.
I’m confident that the (SAD-BJP) alliance would continue to work together to maintain hard-earned peace in Punjab HARSIMRAT KAUR BADAL, Bathinda MP
Cong MLA Nagra resigns
Congress MLA from Fatehgarh Sahib constituency, Kuljit Singh Nagra, on Thursday resigned in protest against passing of the two farm bills in the LS.
CHANDIGARH: Reacting to the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Modi cabinet, the Punjab unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called it an unfortunate development, adding, however, that it had no bearing on the alliance.
“I fail to understand the political compulsion that forced her to tender her resignation,” said state BJP president Ashwani Kumar Sharma. He added that the bills to which the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was opposed, were, in fact, good for farmers. “The bills are in farmers’ interests. As far as assured procurement, security of the MSP and the existence of mandis is concerned, it will remain intact,” Sharma added.
“Today’s development has set a tone for a different political combination in the state,” said a state-level BJP leader. “If we continue to be in a pre-poll alliance, we are in position to ask for seats. Or it would be a post-poll alliance,” he added.